Infinity Crisis
by Michael Weyer
Summary: SPOILERS for "Infinity War". Thanos' actions don't just affect his world but the entire Multiverse. Now, the Avengers get a variety of allies in a quest to save what is left. Avengers/Arrow/Flash/Supergirl/Legends of Tomorrow crossover. Now with Commentary Chapter.
1. Chapter 1

**Infinity Crisis**

 **I don't own Avengers or Arrowverse or DC or Marvel. I know, so many tales but this popped into my head after seeing Infinity War and just would not rest. All comments welcomed.**

* * *

 _One Snap._

 _That was all it took. A snap of a glove that could control all of time and space. A snap made by a madman convinced he was right. One snap and half the universe was wiped away._

 _But a snap on a scale greater than anyone could conceive. Even the holder of the gauntlet. A snap that made an effect that crossed across barriers._

 _A snap that ended so many hopes._

 _But also ignited at least one._

* * *

 **Earth-1. Star City**

Felicity looked up from the computer as she saw Oliver and Diggle enter, still in uniform. "No luck?" It was quiet in the Arrow Lair, the buzz of the computers the only sound amid the sleek and high tech base.

Oliver shook his head. "No. Diaz is keeping it to the low ground now." His dark green uniform showed little wear of a fight as he put his bow on a waiting rack.

"Since you helped bust his operations, he's more nervous," Diggle said as he pulled off his helmet. "We'll get him."

Oliver nodded as he pulled back his hood. "Good to have you back."

"Good to be back." Diggle said with a light smile. "I know, it's been rough but…I'm glad we've gotten back on track.

"Did hear from Dinah," Felicity spoke up. "Sounds like Renee might be up soon and-"

That was when it hit. A chill cutting through the entire room. A sinking feeling in all their guts. A sign that something very bad was about to happen. Oliver Queen had felt that quite a few times in his life but never like this.

Felicity was the first. She was looking down at her hands when she saw them start to darken. She brought them up toward her face, staring at them in disbelief as they seemed to slowly flake away. She looked up, her mouth opening as the darkness washed over her face. "Oliver?" she got out just before it all came apart, her body transforming into dust and blown away.

Oliver just stared, unable to comprehend what he had just seen. He turned to Diggle only to see the same darkness growing over his body. His best friend was looking up, his face literally ashen before he too came apart. Oliver stood amid the ashes of his wife and his closest ally, his mind completely unable to accept what he'd seen. He might have stayed that way for hours if not for the shrill alarm of a cell phone.

Pulling it out of his pocket, Oliver robotically raised it up. "Hello?"

" _Ollie_?" Thea's voice came over the line, filled with anguish. " _Oh, God, Ollie... …Roy…he just…I was here and he just…before me…and so many people in the cafe….Dust, Ollie, they're all dust!"_

"Oh, God, you too."

" _Wha? Who?"_

"Dig…And Felicity…"

" _Oh, God, Ollie…what is happening_?"

Oliver Queen had no idea how to respond to that.

* * *

 **Earth-1. Central City**

It was how slow it seemed to his eyes that would forever haunt Barry Allen.

He'd seen death before. He'd seen destruction. He'd seen a tidal wave about to engulf the city and Vandal Savage nearly ruining another. But this…this was so much worse.

It took a moment for him to realize what was happening but to him, a moment could be hours. Thus he could see every instant as the darkness washed over Iris's body. He could see her eyes looking down at herself, at first in confusion, then in alarm. Every inch of her decaying head moving up stretched out agonizingly slow as he saw her eyes gazing at him. There was horror, regret, pain…and love. That love that never died out even as the eyes themselves turned black and then into a cloud of ash.

All Barry could do was stare, not registering the scream from Caitlin as she saw Harry succumb to the same fate. He could only look at the slow-motion of his wife dying in front of him and helpless to stop it.

Once again, the Fastest Man Alive realized there were things even he couldn't outrun.

* * *

 **Earth-38. National City**

There were times super-hearing was a total curse. This was one of them.

Kara could only gasp and grab at her ears. Usually, she was able to block out the constant drone of the city and moderate her senses. But this wasn't one of those times. She could hear crashes of cars, helicopters and more. She could hear fires explode. And the screams. Dear Rao, she could hear all the screams…

"Kara."

She stared at the pile of ash that had been Winn standing nearby a console when it happened. How he'd been talking one second and then nothing but dust the next.

"Kara!"

She turned her head to see J'onn before her. His own face was tight but clear. "I know you're worried but right now…"

"The people," she blurted. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Swallowing, she bounded past the stunned agents, reflexively trying to avoid getting her boots in any of the ash piles on the floor before taking off through the window.

J'onn looked to Alex, whose own face was marked with shock but trying to fight it. "Listen up!" His voice cut through the air and the agents who had been freaking out over comrades vanishing were instantly alert. "I want full scans of this planet! I want to know how far reaching this is and if there's any source!" He glanced at the ash piles and took a deep breath. "Get the labs here, get the….remains contained and studied. Move!"

As the agents bustled, J'onn turned to Alex, who was staring at the screens. His gaze followed hers to see news feeds of cities around the world engulfed in chaos. "What is happening?" Alex asked but the Martian could only watch in silence.

* * *

 **The Waverider. Outside normal time and space.**

Sara burst onto the bridge at the loud alarm. "What are we looking at, Gideon?" Not surprisingly, Wally was there already along with Constantine who was once more ignoring the "no smoking" rule Sara kept trying to push.

There was a silence. " _The current event is…unprecedented_."

Sara paused. If she didn't know any better, she'd swear the AI sounded…scared. The rest of the Legends were gathering as a holographic screen activated showing Earth and a variety of charts with different colors rising and lowering. " _I cannot accurately chart the level of_ _this aberration,"_ Gideon stated. " _It is simply…incredible_."

"How so?" Ray asked.

" _To be blunt…In early May of 2018, exactly fifty percent of Earth's population transformed into dust."_

A very long silence echoed at that. Mick actually put down his beer to show how serious this was. "What?" Sara asked in a blank voice.

" _Nothing in any historical records indicated this was going to occur,_ " Gideon stated. " _Between_ _those initial vanishings and the casualties of following accidents, the death toll is close to four billion. I cannot understand any cause or source. Suffice to say, the ramifications to the timeline are massive_."

Sara blinked but nodded. "Okay, set a course for there. Gang, gear up, we've got a serious case to handle and-"

A familiar sound like a door sliding open came and they turned to see Ava Sharp come out of the portal. Behind her, they saw what looked like a scene of utter chaos at the Time Bureau with people running around and looking panicked.

"Ava," Sara smiled at the sight of her girlfriend.

"Sara," Ava let out a sigh of relief. "This….holy shit."

"How bad?"

"I've seen half of my staff turn into dust," Ava stated. "It's like that across the rest of the planet. It's turning into a cascade effect across the timelines, numerous futures are just winking out." She shook her head. "This is insane."

"We're setting course there, we'll be-"

"No," Ava snapped. "You can't use the Waverider."

Sara frowned. "Why not?"

"Sara. Think. Fifty percent of Earth just vanished and millions more dead in the aftermath. What do you think are the odds that some of those people were supposed to have descendants that built the Waverider in the first place?"

"Oh, damn," Ray muttered. "We're safe right now in limbo but we land in a more stable time zone…"

"And the Waverider can just snap right out of existence," Ava finished.

" _I can confirm her hypothesis_ ," Gideon inserted. " _And if I may be so bold as to show my own sense of self-survival, I have no wish to risk this."_

Sara slowly nodded as she took it in. "Okay….Zari, you're staying on the ship, keep an eye out."

"Why me?" the woman asked, a bit put out.

"Because it's possible one your ancestors just winked out too," Sara pointed out. "We can't have you vanishing with the Waverider."

Zari blanched as she nodded in acceptance. "The rest of you gear up," Sara intoned. She was moving to her room and trying to suppress the feeling of fear welling in her gut.

* * *

 **Earth-1. Star Labs. Nine Hours Later**

As soon as Thea Queen entered the lab, she made a beeline for her brother. They embraced tightly as Thea couldn't help but let some tears come out of her eyes. Behind her, Nyssa was also solemn as she nodded to a waiting Cisco, Caitlin and Barry, the latter in his Flash costume but clearly shaken.

Thea backed up and looked around to take them all in. "This…I mean…the rest of the team?"

"Gone," Oliver said in a flat voice.

"William?"

"He stayed, thank God. He's with Lyla."

Thea looked over to Barry. "Barry…I'm so sorry."

He nodded. "So am I for you two."

"Joe?"

Barry shook his head. "Him, Harry and half of Central."

"Including DeVoe," Cisco remarked. "So looks like at least one good thing came of all this…"

Oliver wasn't in the mood for his black humor. "Not just us. It's all over the world. Just no telling how or why."

"It must be an attack of some sort," Nyssa stated. "But this…this is beyond anything even Ra's could dream up."

A whooshing sound got their attention and they turned to see what looked like a doorway forming out of thin air. It opened into a portal, allowing the Legends to exit, all in uniform. "Sara," Oliver moved to give her a hug.

"Hey, Ollie," Sara stated. She backed up before seeing the look in his eyes. "What?"

Oliver swallowed. "Your dad…He…"

Sara blinked. "No…"

"He was." Everyone turned as a figure in a black outfit slowly stepped into the room. "Right in front of me."

Sara stared in shock. "Laurel?"

"Not yours," Black Siren stated, her arms crossed.

"Black Siren," Barry intoned. "Laurel from Earth-2."

"One where you died with Oliver on the yacht," Laurel said, her voice laced with a bitter edge. "Where Dad died on my 13th birthday. I'm sure they can give you the rundown on what I've been up to."

"Speaking of, why is she not in jail?" Cisco asked.

Oliver sighed. "Trust me, I'm not happy either. But right now…we need all the help we can get."

Wally was looking to Barry. "Dad?" he asked. Barry's face was all the answer needed as Wally looked down at his feet.

Sara was still rocked by the dual news of her father dying and her late sister's doppelganger standing before her. She looked over to see Nyssa standing nearby. "Hi," she weakly said, wondering exactly how things could get worse.

A sudden wind picked up and what looked like a huge dark hole appeared in the air before the room. Emerging from it was Kara in her Supergirl uniform and a jumpsuit-clad Alex. "Kara?" Barry blurted out in confusion.

Supergirl nodded at them. "Barry. Hi, sorry to drop in but…something has happened on my Earth. I need help, serious help."

"It's…not really the best time."

"Barry, please. Billions across the planet, they've just…turned into dust. Winn, Jimmy, Lena, Mon-El too and his wife just…winked out of existence."

That got alarmed looks and for the first time, Kara noted how there were several people in the usual group missing. "Wait…don't tell me."

"Yeah," Barry said. "It happened here too."

"Iris, Diggle…Felicity," Oliver intoned. "Half the planet just…vanished."

"Oh my God," Alex whispered.

"It's not just us." Everyone turned to Cisco. "I got a call from Gypsy. She couldn't make it here but it's the same on her Earth. And Jessie said the same from hers."

"I need a beer," Mick intoned.

"For once, he speaks for all of us," Nate had to say.

Sara rubbed her temples. "This isn't just one world, it's across a few. God, the effects on history, the way it can shake things…"

"Beloved," Nyssa stated. "It will be all right."

Both Alex and Ava whipped their heads about. "Beloved?" Ava asked.

Nyssa looked to them. "I'm sorry, you are?"

"Ava Sharpe. Director of the Time Bureau. Sara's girlfriend."

Nyssa looked to Alex. "Ah, Alex Danvers, I'm with the DEO and…" Her glance at Sara summed the entire story up for Nyssa, whose lips pursed together.

Despite the situation, Kara couldn't help but smile a tiny bit at the realization that her sister was meeting both the ex and the current of her former one-night stand.

"Normally, this would be a fascinating subject to delve into," Constantine stated. "But we need to focus. This looks magical in some way but it's beyond anything I can figure out."

"It is, John Constantine. Beyond any realm any could conceive."

Everyone spun around at the sound of the cool voice. Standing in the doorway of the lab was a tall man clad in what looked like a blue suit, the coat flapping behind him like a cape. Around his neck was a chained golden medallion. A long hat covered his head. As he stepped forward, it became obvious that no matter how the light hit him, the upper half of his face was always cloaked in shadow.

"Oh, bloody Hell," Constantine moaned. "The Phantom Stranger."

"Who?" Oliver asked.

"No one knows for sure," the magician remarked. "One story is, he's an angel who refused to take sides during Lucifer's rebellion so both Heaven and Hell cast him out. There's an argument he's either the Wandering Jew or the Roman centurion who stabbed Christ on the cross so he's condemned to walk the Earth until the Second Coming." He took a drag on his cigarette. "Hell, some folks think he's Judas Iscariot paying penance. Or just some souped up magician. Point is, he shows up? The shit has nicely hit the fan."

The Stranger studied them all carefully. "The source is not from any of your worlds but another. One outside the 52 realities you know of." He waved a hand and in mid-air, a map of the cosmos was created, featuring stars and galaxies. One by one, a series of glowing gems was illuminated, each a different color. "At its creation, this universe forged a set of gems that contained the power of one aspect of the cosmic life." As he spoke, each gem flashed with color. "Time. Space. The Mind. The Soul. Power. And Reality." He waved a hand and the gems flew about the map. "They became the Infinity Stones, each with the power to make a being unto a god."

"Let me guess," Alex sardonically began. "Someone decided it was a great idea to get them all."

The Stranger nodded as the image shifted again. It showed a huge figure, his purple face marked with a pocketed chin and a bald head, clad in a huge blue armor with golden helmet. "Thanos. The last survivor of the world of Titan. His world fell into chaos when the population grew beyond its resources. Convinced such was the fate of the universe, Thanos began his quest to bring balance the best way he knew how: By killing half the population of the entire universe."

That got several shocked looks. "He is known as the _Mad_ Titan," the Stranger said in answer to the obvious unspoken question. "At first, he merely invaded a world and ravaged half of it. But when he heard of the Infinity Stones, he saw a new way to achieve his goal. Through murder, invasion and trickery, he gained control of them, placing them upon a special gauntlet. In that moment, he became master of all there is and could be. And with that…"

"He…killed…half the universe," Cisco stated in a blank voice.

"Not just his." The Stranger studied them as the image faded. "The power of the Gauntlet was greater than he could ever imagine. It carried his command across the planes of the realities and into each of your worlds and many more. Trillions upon trillions across the multiverse wiped away." He looked over to them. "Thanos believed this would bring balance. In truth, he has instigated the end of all that is."

"Normally, I'd say that's melodramatic," Constantine noted. "Sadly, I know from you, that's not just hyperbole."

"The power Thanos unleashed was one that upset the laws of what should be," the Stranger answered. "The souls of those who have died…have not passed on."

That got a lot of attention. "Wait…" Ray began. "You're saying they're….not dead?"

"As I stated, their souls have not been allowed to pass. By this point, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory should be overwhelmed with new arrivals. None are. At least, not by those destroyed in his initial wave. Those whom died in various accidents and such have passed on. Yet the souls of the trillions taken in Thanos' snap of the Gauntlet are now…lost."

"Lost?" Oliver demanded. "Where?"

"Such is beyond even my sight," the Stranger stated. "However, because of this, the balance of both life and death has been undone. The barriers are beyond ravaged. Trillions who should be born in the future now shall never exist. Thanos has unknowingly set forth events that can destroy his universe. And as one goes, so shall another and another."

Barry's mind was racing. "If those people haven't…passed on…Then maybe…"

"They could be brought back?" Caitlin piped up, her face hopeful.

"Bringing back the dead can't be that easy," Sara said. "I know that."

"But possible," Constantine stated.

"That world is your best path to answers." The Stranger studied them all carefully. "There are many forces in play now. But your journey to this world may be most needed. They have their own champions there. Together, your forces may be enough to stem the tide of destruction to come." He slowly backed away. "Good luck to you all. The universe rests upon you." With that, he seemed to fade into the shadows and vanish.

"Fate of the universe," Nate noted. "So same old, same old."

Somehow, the rest of the group wasn't that thrilled with his assessment.

* * *

 **Earth-A. Avengers Compound**

Steve Rogers looked at his face in the mirror, brushing at his now clean chin. Shaving the beard seemed an odd move but somehow it helped him clear his mind. He'd let it grow out of some doubts in his mission during the last year. To no longer be welcomed in his own nation, hunted for saving others, it had hurt Steve deeply. He supposed the beard covered up some of that pain. Now, he was getting rid of it just as he was feeling overwhelmed.

He'd been through battles. He'd seen slews of horrors most should never live through. But this was…something else. The image of Bucky turning into dust was going to haunt his dreams for the rest of his life. The realization it wasn't just him but half the planet was worse. They'd thrown everything they had at Thanos, all they could give…and they'd lost.

He wiped his face off as exited the washroom. He pulled on a dark shirt over his bare torso before heading out into the main chamber of the base. A few personnel were still around, leftover helpers and SHIELD agents and all wearing the same numb expressions Steve had. He had no idea who was in charge of anything. It seemed the President had survived but half the Pentagon and Congress were gone. That included Ross which meant the team no longer had some oversight. Once, Steve would have enjoyed that but now would have welcomed some sort of aid.

He saw Natasha nearby talking to a very familiar figure. A small bit of hope pushed up in Steve as he picked up his pace. "Clint."

Clint Barton looked to him. "Cap," he said in a simple voice. He held out a hand only for Steve to embrace him. Clint returned it awkwardly before backing up. "Your family?" Steve asked.

"My sons are still around." Clint clearly couldn't say the rest and Cap gave him a slow assuring pat on the shoulder. "Glad to have you here."

"Put an arrow into this Thanos guy? Not passing it up."

The whine of some engines got their attention. "That will be Tony," Natasha said. "He radioed he was coming in." The trio were soon exiting the hanger and into the field. Thor was there, alongside a fatigues clad Rhodey, Banner and that odd alien who kept insisting he wasn't a raccoon. He was rising up as he saw the alien spacecraft flow downward and make a rather awkward landing. "Geez, tell me they didn't let Drax fly again."

There was a pause before the ramp at the rear of the craft opened. Coming out, a hand to his side was a tired-looking Tony Stark. Behind him was a blue-skinned woman who appeared to be made mostly out of cybernetic body parts. With them was a gorgeous black-skinned woman in what looked like a take on a classic suit of armor. Following behind them was another beautiful woman, her lush black hair framing her face and wearing her own armor.

Thor's face broke out into a grin. "Sif!" he called out.

The woman smiled back as she moved to embrace him. "My Lord."

"Asgard is gone, Sif. No need to honor me with that title." Thor looked to the other woman. "Valkyrie."

"Thor," she noted.

"Yeah, ran into a distress call from another ship on the way over," Tony explained in a dull voice. "Found the armor lady with the survivors of that ship Thor was on. Seemed they managed to run into Sif here who helped and as soon as I mentioned Point Break here, they were in."

He looked to Steve. "Where's Pepper?"

"New York," Steve answered. "It's still a mess so she couldn't get out here."

"Good." Tony let out a sigh, clearly a piece of his very large weight lifted off him. "That's…good."

Rocket was looking over their shoulder. "Hey, where's the…" He stopped and looked at Nebula. "Aw no. Don't tell me…"

"All gone," she flatly stated. "By him."

"Gamora?"

"Gone."

The raccoon looked down at the ground as his eyes misted.

"So's the kid." Steve's head jerked up at Tony. "Him and Strange. They just…" He waved a hand.

"I know," Steve stated. "What you see here…all that we can get so far."

"Fury?"

"No word. I figure by now…"

Tony winced as he rubbed at his side. "I need to get this stitched up. Then we start hunting."

"Hunting?" Steve frowned as he followed Tony into the main building.

"He's out there," Tony stated as he marched toward the nearest lab. "He's out there just enjoying what he did. And there's no way I'm letting him do that."

"Tony," Steve snapped. "The world is in chaos right now. They need us to try and help, to keep order, we can't just go half-cocked out there…"

Tony whirled on him. "The kid trusted me, Cap. Peter trusted me and he just…in my arms, he…" Tony wiped his face. "That son of a bitch smiled, Steve. He smiled as he wiped out half the universe with a snap of his fingers. He doesn't just do that."

"Tony."

"We're called the Avengers, right, Steve? Well maybe it's time we finally lived up to that. We find him and we avenge God only knows how many billions of people."

"For once, I'm with Stark," Clint announced.

A coughing got their attention and they all turned as a pair of people entered the facility. One was a lovely woman with dark hair in a tight black jumpsuit. The other was a familiar, if rather non-descript, face in his own dark suit. "I'm sorry to interrupt. The…door was open."

"Son of Coul!" Thor called out.

Phil Coulson nodded to him and the others. "This is Daisy." He nodded to the woman next to him. "Sadly, we're pretty much all that's left. But we figure if you need us…"

"Good to have you back," Steve noted.

Coulson looked at the group. "I admit…I was expecting a more serious reaction."

"We knew," Natasha stated. "When we released all the SHIELD files, we went through them. Didn't take long to find mention of how you were brought back and running your own team."

"Ah."

"We just figured we'd wait for you to come to us," Tony stated in a cold voice. "Guess the wait's over."

"You sound mad."

"I spoke at your funeral."

"Thank you for that."

"I made a speech. A heartfelt one."

"I know, I saw."

"It was very moving."

"I cried."

"Have you heard from Fury?" Steve pressed.

Coulson shook his head. "If he's not contacting us by now…" He didn't have to finish.

Tony winced again. "Okay, I get this stitched, I work on armor, we figure out how to get Bruce to green out and then we find that bastard and rip his head off."

"Tony," Steve snapped. "We don't have time for just revenge."

"We let him get away?"

"No, we save what we have left first."

"We can handle that later."

"There are people dying now, Tony. We don't have a later!"

"Oh, does this seem familiar," Natasha muttered as she saw the two men facing off.

Before anyone could react, there was a crackling sound. Everyone turned to see what looked like a cloud of some sort forming out of thin air. It resembled the same force Thanos had used for his teleporting, just a bit more charged.

The group was gathered, weapons raised. Widow had her batons, Thor held Stormbreaker, Steve his shields, Tony allowed his gauntlets to form over his hands, Sif and Valkyrie pulled out their swords, Clint his bow, Skye raising her hands and Rocket had his gun up and ready. There was a pause before a set of figures exited the portal, over a dozen in all. They took in the group before them before their leader, a man in a green suit and hood, held up his hands.

"We're here to help."

* * *

 **So the idea to this hit me suddenly right after "Infinity War." Originally had thought Barry dying too but will play a big role to come in things. Also thought Nyssa going but come on, the idea of her, Alex and Ava clashing a bit was too perfect. I know it can be tricky given we don't know what's to come in the sequel and such but hope you enjoy it and all comments welcomed for what's coming.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Infinity Crisis**

 **By Michael Weyer**

 **Well, response was good so here goes. Might be shorter chapters a bit for setup but hopefully you'll be happy.**

* * *

"Ya know," Tony spoke up. "We have bad experiences with people saying they want to help who come out of fancy portals."

The hooded figure was tense, as were most of his comrades. "We're not here to fight. We know what's happened, it's the same on our world."

"Yours?" Steve asked.

Clint had his bow aimed right at the hooded man. "Maybe we shoot first, ask questions later?"

In a second, the man had a bow of his own aimed right back at him. "Try it."

Clint frowned. "Huh. That's…not a bad design. Compound, miniaturized aspects?"

"Right." Oliver looked him over. "Huh. Motorized quiver."

"Yeah, helps me figure out which one to grab."

"Huh. Thought of that but thought it would take too long."

"Ah, the old coding on the shaft."

"Hey, it works."

Ray was leaning forward in his armored suit, looking at Tony. "Whoa. Is that…nanotech?" He laughed. "Man, I have been trying to figure out how to make that work!"

"Can't do it yourself?"

"Well, I can but the dwarf star energy interferes with it."

"Whoa…dwarf star?" Tony suddenly looked interested. "As in…shrinking?"

"Yep."

"Without Pym particles?'

"What are those?"

Tony seemed to have forgotten the threat at hand as pure scientific curiosity took hold. "Hold on, how did you manage to create a natural reactor for a dwarf star? Or even the anti-gravity needed to contain it?"

"Well, funny story. See, I was messing around-"

"Hey!" Rocket called out. "Enough of the science crap!'

Mick blinked. "Am I already drunk or does anyone else see a talking raccoon with a gun?'

"Sadly, it's not just you," Cisco noted.

"I'm not a raccoon!"

"Yes, you are."

"I'm not!"

"Dude, come on, you might as well be a cartoon symbol."

"Can we focus here?" Barry snapped.

"Lad's right," Constantine said as he lit up a cigarette, getting a few dirty looks from those around him.

"Put that out," Sara hissed.

"What? We don't know there's no smoking laws on this Earth."

"Do it, John."

He smirked. "So bossy, like that one time…"

Sara's face glowered at him. "Do _not_ bring that up."

"Wait…" Alex blurted, her eyes widening in understanding. "You hooked up with _him_?"

Sara's eyes took on a "deer in the headlights" expression. "Um, yes?'

Alex's eyes narrowed. "Was that before or after you and me?"

"Ah…bit after."

"And before Ava?"

"Yes." For a woman used to handling slews of killers at a time, Sara was quite clearly uncomfortable with this conversation.

"What, you knew she played for both teams, right?" Constantine asked. "I mean, she was shagging Queen here for quite a while."

Oliver winced as Alex whirled on him. "Wait, you were with him too?!"

Black Siren rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I'm in hell. I was killed by that Thanos guy after all and this is Hell."

"Nah, Hell's lot colder," Constantine said. "I know, surprising to everyone when they get down there."

"Hey!" They all turned to see an annoyed Tony glaring at them. "I'm sure this is truly fascinating but right now, give us proof you're not with Thanos!"

"We don't want to fight either," Steve announced. "But we will." The others tightened their grips on their weapons.

Barry and Wally looked at each other and nodded. Steve was just opening his mouth in a warning when a blur of red and yellow lightning flashed around him. A very loud clattering sound went up as his shield, a bow and quiver and various guns were dropped to a large pile in front of the two men. Clint and Rocket were still holding out their arms, unable to understand why nothing was in them anymore.

"Now," Barry stated. "Can we calm down and talk? As you can see, if we wanted to fight…"

Without warning, Natasha pulled a gun from behind her back and was aiming it. Another blur came out as Kara stepped in front of the two speedsters, the bullets flying out and striking off her chest. Natasha only saw two of them hit before aiming at Kara's head…and they just bounced off of her face. With a frown, Kara's eye lit up and Natasha reflexively yelped as her gun turned red hot in her hands and she dropped it.

"Okaaaaaay…." Tony intoned just staring. "That is…unique."

Kara held up her hands. "Look….we just saw half the population of our worlds vanish into dust. We were told it was because of this Thanos guy. We're here to figure out if there's a way to set things right."

"And if there's not," Oliver flatly stated. "We're going to kill him."

Bruce was frowning. "Your worlds?"

"It's…complicated," Barry stated. "Maybe we can just talk inside?"

There was a long pause as the other group looked at each other carefully. Steve finally stepped forward. "Come on in…but don't take it personally if we're watching." He moved to carefully take back his shield.

Tony's eyes fell on the pile of weapons and then lit up at the sight of one in particular. "Wait…wait…" Tony bent down and wrapped his hands around Thor's hammer. With a tug, he rose up, grinning as he lifted it in his gauntlets. "Yes! Yes, I knew it! I knew it was some sort of trick before!" He held the hammer up. "I, Tony Stark, am now Lord of Asgard!"

"Stark," Thor began in a voice as if explaining to a child. "That hammer does not have the enchantment that only one worthy can hold it."

Tony's face fell. "Oh."

"And the current state of Asgard means you would be the Lord of nothing but a land of fire, ash and smoked remains."

"Ah." Tony tossed Stormbreaker to Thor, who easily caught it. "Moving on then."

* * *

The group assembled in the large conference room, taking opposite sides of the table. "You wanted to talk," Steve stated. "So talk."

Barry stepped forward as he pulled his mask back to show his face. "How familiar are you with alternate universes?"

"I know the theory," Stark announced. "And Pym was talking some sort of subatomic dimension. Plus, that Strange guy mentioned other planes."

"We're from one," Barry announced. "Actually, most of us are while they," he nodded to Kara and Alex. "Are from another. Different Earths, vibrating at different frequencies. Some are nearly carbon copies with only minor differences. Others are totally different."

"For example," Alex piped up. "We've already noted your world doesn't have cities we do like National, Star or Central. Plus, not finding copies of us."

Tony frowned. "Any of you hear of me? Tony Stark? Billionaire, genius inventor?"

Some of the others couldn't help but sigh that even a massive catastrophe wasn't enough to kill Tony's ego. The shaking of heads from the new arrivals did little to temper that.

"Anyway," Barry moved on. "What happened on your world, happened on ours. Half the population just vanished into dust." His face grew somber. "Like my wife…and my foster father."

"Which is my real dad and sister," Wally added.

"My wife and best friend," Oliver flatly said. "We all lost people."

Kara licked her lips. "And it happened on my Earth too. That's why we're here."

The Avengers took that in. "And just who are you all?" Steve asked.

The Flash nodded. "Barry Allen. I'm the Flash and I'm the fastest man alive."

Wally pulled off his mask. "Wally West. Call me Kid Flash."

"Not very original on your Earth," Tony muttered.

"From the man called Iron Man," Clint snorted.

"The newspapers came up with that."

"And you had it trademarked in five minutes!"

"Branding."

Kara cut through this by stepping forward. "Kara Zor-El…or Kara Danvers. I'm the sole survivor of my planet of Krypton."

That got a few more reactions with Thor frowning. "Krypton? I had heard of you…Your world was destroyed some time ago."

Kara sighed. "Great, it happened here too. I got sent off just before it exploded and landed on Earth." She nodded to the woman beside her. "This is my foster sister, Alex Danvers."

The archer pulled back his hood and peeled off his mask. "Oliver Queen. Call me Green Arrow."

"Huh," Hawkeye stated. "Woulda pegged you for the Hood."

"He was," Thea stated. "I'm his sister, Thea, call me Speedy."

"Laurel Lance," the dark-garbed woman stated.

The blonde in white gave her a glare. "Sara Lance."

"Is there some…friction here?" Natasha asked as she glanced at the two.

Sara glared. "She's the alternate Earth version of my late sister who happens to be a vicious killer."

Siren smirked. "Actually, from my point of view, _you're_ the alternate Earth version of _my_ late sister. Who died while she was cheating on _my_ boyfriend." She pointed to Oliver.

Rocket snorted. "Ugh, humans. Ya always gotta make things complicated."

Sara began pointing to her team. "That's Ray Palmer, the Atom. Nate Heywood, call him Steel." In response to the unanswered question, Nate transformed his body into solid steel to some surprised looks. "Mick Rory, call him Heatwave or just ignore him like most of us do."

The trench coat man stubbed out his cigarette. "John Constantine. Accomplished warlock, master of dark arts, expert in the occult." He threw a smirk at the Avengers. "And a Taurus, if anyone's interested."

The others exchanged odd looks, not sure which one Constantine was directing that comment to and deciding it was best not to ask. To fill the awkward moment out, Cisco raised his hands. "Cisco Ramon. I'm Vibe."

"Caitlin Snow," the attractive woman by him said.

"Alias Killer Frost," Ray announced with a smile

"Actually….not right now. It's…complicated."

"Nyssa al Guhl," the final member of the group announced. "Daughter of the Demon."

"Really hoping that's just a metaphor," Clint muttered.

The Avengers glanced at one another before Steve spoke up. "Steve Rogers, Captain America."

Mick snorted. "Ugh, that's even worse than Haircut's name."

Bruce waved. "Dr. Bruce Banner."

"Natasha Romanoff," the black-garbed woman stated. "Code name is Black Widow."

"I am Thor, son of Odin, Prince of Asgard, God of Thunder." It wasn't so much an introduction as a pronouncement.

Cisco blinked at him. "Whoa. As in…the Norse Gods?"

"Met one of those," Constantine snorted. "Bunch of egotistical prats." He frowned as he took in Thor. "Funny, thought you had red hair."

Thor rolled his eyes. "Ugh, one of Loki's pranks that got rather out of hand."

"Yeah, where is that annoyingly psychotic brother of yours?" Tony spoke up. "Not that I really miss him but Bruce mentioned he was with you and might be a help."

Thor's face darkened. "Thanos killed him." That got a long silence from the group. While they may have considered Loki an enemy, they knew how Thor still loved him as a brother, no matter what. Also, the fact Thanos could kill a man of such power intensified the threat.

Rocket cut through it, of course, waving a hand. "Name's Rocket, give ya the spiel on my origins later."

"Clint Barton. Hawkeye." He was still eyeing Oliver, who glared right back at him.

"I'm Phil Coulson. This is Daisy Johnson. We're from SHIELD."

"SHIELD?" Barry asked.

"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division," Daisy explained.

Cisco blinked. "So…they just chose the name of SHIELD and then figured out what kind of words to use to spell it out?"

"Pretty much," Coulson admitted.

Kara had been taking this time to study Nebula. "You're not human but can't recognize the species."

"My species doesn't have a name anymore," the woman answered. "Not since Thanos." She held up a metallic hand. "He…did this to me. Remade me into this..just to show his power over me."

"So add you to the 'wanna kill him list', gotcha."

Jim raised a hand. "Jim Rhodes, current code name is War Machine."

"Oh, that is so awesome," Cisco sighed.

The gorgeous dark haired woman raised her chin. "Sif of Asgard."

"Valkyrie," the other woman added. "Also…of Asgard." She gave a small smile to Thor who returned it.

Coulson clapped his hands. "So, introductions are out of the way. Now what?'

"We were told there might be a way to fix this," Constantine stated. "Basically, seems the souls of the people lost haven't passed over."

Tony snorted. "Seriously? You're going to get into that talk?'

"Sorry, you don't know magic?"

"Strange was pulling it but just seems another type of science."

"Lovely, you're one of those." Constantine shook his head at Sara. "Reminds me of this bloke calling himself Dr. Thirteen. You could take him on the Waverider, drop him in front of Mallus and he'd still contend somehow there's no such thing as demons, magic or time travel."

"Time travel?" Steve asked.

"Long story," Sara replied. "But yeah, my team and me, we travel through time, fix things that have gone wrong."

"And then have to fix the bits we screw up," Nate was forced to admit. He held up his hands at Sara's glare. "Hey, just getting it out there."

"Time travel…" Tony's brow furrowed. "Can you-"

"We had to leave our ship behind," Ray explained. "No way it could get through the breach Cisco made." He paused and looked at Barry. "Although…"

But Barry was already shaking his head. "I can't. And even if I could…I'm not sure it would work."

"What would?" Steve pressed.

Barry looked over to Wally. "You felt it too, didn't you?"

The younger man nodded. "I was wondering if it was just me. But it's not, is it?"

Barry looked to the rest of the group. "There's an other-dimensional source of energy we nickname the Speed Force. It's what gives me, Wally and a few others our super-speed. Usually, I can feel a huge connection to it. Even when I was on Kara's Earth, I could feel it majorly. But here…It's like the connection is somehow muted."

That made Cisco and Caitlin very concerned. "Wait, you're not as fast?" Caitlin asked.

"We'd have to test it but right now, my guess is, a quarter slower than what we'd usually be. Which means, no way I could get the speed to go back in time." Barry sighed. "And even if I could…I've seen the effects."

"Hey," Clint snapped. "We just lost half the planet, I'm pretty sure the effects are already damn bad!"

"But they could be worse." Glancing about, Barry saw a coffee cup on the table. Remembering what Jay had said, he picked it up and broke off a piece. "Imagine this cup represents the space-time continuum. And it's broken. Now, I can go back and fix it…" He put the piece back and with a quick vibration, it was solid. However, Barry pointed to the visible crack in it. "But it won't be just as it was." He repeated the process, breaking and fixing the cup and then showing a different crack. "I can do this over and over but there will always be differences." He put the cup down. "I can go back and maybe stop Thanos. But for all I know, doing so causes ripple effects. Some of you will lose people you love, others may just wink out of existence."

Tony was opening his mouth but Steve held up a hand. He could see something in Barry's expression. "You did that. Didn't you?"

Barry looked downward. "I went back to stop my mom from being murdered when I was a kid. It created a new timeline where I grew up with her and my dad. Everyone's lives were different. I realized it was doing damage to the continuum so I went back, set it right." He looked up. "But then I came back to a new world. A friend used to have a daughter but now had a son." He glanced to Cisco. "People…lost more than they would have." He shook his head. "Time travel is not a go-to answer, it just messes things up more."

"He's right." Sara stepped forward. "We…used to have a friend with us. Martin Stein. He met his own younger self, gave some advice. The next thing he knows, he has a grown-up daughter he doesn't remember at all. It just shows that time travel can cause reprecussions we can't deal with."

"Listen, lady, I lost my wife and daughter," Clint snapped.

"And I lost my sister!" Sara fired right back. "My real one, not her," she waved at Siren, who looked a bit put-out. "And the first thing I wanted to do was go back and save her but I was told doing so would mess it up. I even met a younger version of the guy who murdered her and wanted to kill him to save her but that would cause a disaster. So forget using time travel, it's not an option, no matter the stakes."

"Plus, the effects on the cosmos," a voice piped up from the doorway. Everyone turned to see an attractive young woman with light brown hair and casual dress standing by the room. "The strain this can do to other planets can't be ignored."

Thor was rising from his seat with some wonder. "Jane."

Dr. Jane Foster offered a small smile. "Hi. I…um…I was nearby doing research project when it happened. I figured that coming here was a smart move."

"It's…good to see you."

Jane looked him over. "You cut your hair."

Thor brushed it in a self-conscious manner. "You like it?"

"It's…not bad."

Oliver looked to Tony. "Ex?" At the nod, he sighed.

"Fine, no time travel," Tony stated. "Let's move on to the better plan which is finding Thanos and killing him."

"We kill him, we might blow whatever shot we have to get people back," Oliver snapped.

"Trust me, when he's the one urging caution, it's best to listen," Ray remarked.

"Then we start finding things out." Steve rose to his feet. "We start research. Stark, you can get with their science people, see if you can figure a way to either track Thanos or more on the…disappearances." He pointed to Oliver. "You look like the fighter, we need to go over team strengths and how to work together."

"I can handle that," Oliver allowed, impressed by the instant command the man showed.

Steve looked over both groups. "I know you've got questions. So do we. But we've wasted enough time as it is so we can't waste any more. Get it together and we can handle this. Any questions now?" He pointed to the man holding up his hand. "Yes?"

Mick cleared his throat and the Legends moaned. "Oh, don't say it, don't say it…" Nate pleaded.

"Where do you guys keep your beer?"

"He said it."

* * *

It was a peace that had so long eluded him.

He looked at the planet before him. The quiet fields. The sun shining. The wind and birds about. It was just what he'd fought for. A universe at perfect balance, as it should be. For the first time in his life…he was content.

"Someone's feeling proud of himself."

Thanos spun around, a hand reflexively holding up his left fist. It took a moment to remember the Gauntlet was no longer on it but nestled in his home in its wrecked state. Before him stood a man in a dark red suit, coat flapping behind in the breeze. His dark hair was offset by a handsome face and lips pulled into a smirk.

"Who are you?" the Titan demanded.

"Just an…admirer," the figure replied as he stepped forward. He appeared totally calm yet Thanos felt some sort of energy in him. This was no human yet he couldn't figure out just what he was. "I must give you credit for what you've accomplished. A major shift to things…although not quite the perfect balance you'd hoped for."

"Half the universe is now gone."

"Leaving a slew of chaos in its wake," the figure mused. "Oh, it may balance out eventually…but for now, it's rather a mess."

"Birth is always painful," Thanos stated. "And this is the birth of a new time."

The figure just pursed his lips together. "There are those who will oppose you."

"I can deal with them."

"Can you?" The figure cocked a head. "I'm not so sure. You are weaker now, as much as you deny it. And they're stronger than you think. They're coming for you. And they will beat you."

Thanos studied the man. "And why are you telling me this?"

The figure shrugged. "I have my reasons. But rest assured, Thanos…Unless you take action, they will undo everything you have accomplished."

"I will face them alone."

"Who says you have to?"

Thanos cocked his head. "You have a different suggestion?'

The figure smiled. "Oh…I have some ideas."

* * *

 **So we get the meet and greet with the groups. Next chapter will have more interaction, including airing of the Steve/Tony issues and as you can guess, the ending is going to lead to some turns.**

 **Now to forestall comments, a quick bit on who you won't be seeing:**

 *** The Defenders: I figure even if some of them survived, they'll be too busy dealing with the chaos in New York. Luke would help Harlem, Danny his neighborhood, Matt Hell's Kitchen and Jessica...well, probably at the nearest bar. As fun as Jessica meeting the gang would be, unlikely to see them.**

 *** Ghost Rider: Never a fan of the SHIELD version and figured he's among the vanished.**

 *** Inhumans: Even the MCU is pretending that terrible series never happened. So basically imagine that whatever is left of them, they're putting themselves first and not getting involved with the rest of the Avengers.**

 **BTW, wanted to have the time travel issue handled from the start and how it can't be the go-to easy answer. And no, we will NOT have Thanos defeated by a giant Beeboo.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Infinity Crisis**

 **By Michael Weyer**

* * *

The lab of Avengers compound was busier than it had been in quite some time. With Tony so busy in New York and the Avengers themselves basically disbanded, there had been little reason for more than the typical small staff. Now, every station was being used with monitors flowing with information across the globe. Tony was standing in the middles, arms crossed as his eyes darted to take in the information. "Wakanda was first," he noted. "Make sense, that's where Thanos was. It hit there, then expanded in seconds across the globe."

"No real pattern," Ray noted from behind him. "In fact, it just seemed as random as on our Earth."

"I hate random."

"So do I."

Tony glanced at him. "So, how rich were you?" He shrugged at Ray's look. "I know a high-living guy when I see him. Born into it?"

"More like earned it," Ray stated. He had left his suit standing in a corner, in his usual street clothes. "Made a fortune in the tech market."

"And you thought putting on a fancy suit would spark it up?"

Ray's face became serious. "My fiancée was killed in an uprising in Star City. I wanted…I wanted to make a difference. The Atom suit was my way of doing it." He moved to a nearby console, tapping the keys to check more of the energy readouts. "Then I was believed dead by the world…And it just kept going. Oh, they named the city Star in inspiration but aside from that…I didn't have much to remember me by. I figured…with the team…it's something."

Tony was quiet, still staring at the readouts. Ray looked up at him. "Huh, was figuring this you chiming in."

"I don't share well with others."

Ray took in the glowing patch at the center of Tony's chest. He moved in, peering at it. "Is that…a battery?"

"Arc reactor."

"In your chest?"

Tony sighed. "I took a piece of shrapnel when I was attacked and kidnapped by terrorists. It was closing in on my heart, ready to kill me. I managed to create this with the help of another scientist held captive. It was just to stay alive but…"

"What?"

Tony looked away. "My dad built the company in World War II. He was ahead of his time majorly. He died when I was a kid and me? I just went around selling weapons, military contracts, the first thing I thought of when I came up with something was how to make it into a thing that can blow something up."

"Then you saw what it could do." Ray knew that look very well.

Tony nodded. "I did. I realized I just…had to be more." He wiped at his face. "Can we just skip this? I don't do the bonding as well as some claim."

"Fair enough." Ray looked back at the screen. He nodded to a reading. "You see anything on the way back from that other planet?"

"I wasn't exactly in a sight-seeing mood." The tone made Ray realize it was best for once to just shut up as they continued their work.

* * *

"Who's Killer Frost?"

Caitlin started and looked up at Bruce who shrugged. "Sorry, just…Ray mentioned you were her but you seemed to say no."

Caitlin mused before reaching into her pocket to pull out her phone. As she dialed her code, she spoke. "Long story short…I got exposed to some energies and it gave me abilities. But I tried to lock them away for too long. They finally came out into a completely different personality with ice-based powers."

She showed the phone to Bruce, revealing an image of herself with white hair, blue lips and a blue outfit. "Huh," Bruce stated.

Caitlin raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"

Bruce was reaching to pull out his own phone. "Years back, I was working with gamma radiation."

"What?"

Bruce looked up in surprise. "You don't have that in your world? Weird. Anyway, I took a bad dose of it, it should have killed me. Instead, it mutated me so when I got angry…" He showed a picture and Caitlin had to drop her jaw at the sight of the huge green figure.

Cisco was peeking over her shoulder and stared. "Wait, that's you?!"

"That's the Hulk," Bruce corrected. "Kind of the same thing, a totally different persona. I've been able to control him now and then but he can still cut loose. He's…a monster, when he's enraged, nothing can stop him." He sighed as he put the phone away. "He ended up in control for almost two years when we were on another planet. But lately…I don't know why…he won't come out."

Caitlin frowned. "That's…interesting. Maybe it's some sort of block? Or just him….afraid?"

Bruce rubbed his chin. "I don't know…I've never known him to be afraid of anything?"

"Frost said she wasn't but…I knew she was. Maybe whatever's going on with you is the same."

"Maybe," Bruce conceded. "I hope so because we can use all the firepower we can get for this."

* * *

Alex was checking over the arsenal in the weapons room. Nyssa was nearby, going over a variety of weapons. "I generally prefer hand to hand," she stated. "But I can take firearms if need be."

Alex just checked a pistol, noting the odd design. "You sound like you're well trained."

"My father was the leader of the League of Assassins."

"I'm guessing a troubled childhood."

"It…had its moments," Nyssa allowed.

"Is that where…you met Sara?" Alex kept her voice as neutral as possible.

"It was a complex story," Nyssa answered. "Suffice to say, we bonded."

Alex looked over at her with an expression of understanding. "Holy crap…you're her Maggie."

Nyssa was frowning as Natasha entered the room and looked them over. "Training?" she asked in a flat tone.

In answer, Nyssa drew a dagger from her belt and threw it. It flipped through the air right at Natasha's head before she easily caught it. The two women gazed at each other and nodded in a way that spoke volumes. Natasha looked to Alex, who held up her hands. "I'm not trying it. Suffice to say, I'm proficient in weapons and hand-to-hand combat. Oh and I've fought Martians."

Natasha gazed at her before nodding. "That'll work." She turned to walk out, calling over her shoulder. "Follow me."

The tone made it clear the two women should do so. They joined Natasha in a side room with several mats around, clearly a training area. Sara and Siren were already there, each giving the other ugly glares. Siren had to smirk as she saw Nyssa and Alex coming out together. "Comparing notes on my sis' special marks?'

"Shut up," Sara snapped.

"Oh like you're not imagining a threesome? Or wait for your girlfriend to join in?"

"God, I can't imagine mom raising you as a teenager."

Siren glared at her. "She didn't. She was too busy drinking herself into a hole. Then the grave." That hit Sara a bit.

Natasha slammed a baton onto the wall to get their attention. "Listen up. I just saw half of my world die, including a bunch of friends. I don't care what issues you have with each other, put them aside for right now." She looked them over. "You say you're skilled. Fine. We need to find out and get on the same page or we all suffer."

She moved to the center of the mat and beckoned to Sara. "Come on." Sara raised an eyebrow but moved in, unfolding her staff. Metal met metal as it slammed into Natasha's batons and the two women began to spar as the rest of the group watched.

* * *

Wally winced as he came to a stop, bending over to take a breath. A crackle of lightning had Barry joining him, also wincing a bit. "Yeah, definitely slower."

"Can it get worse?" Wally asked as he straightened up. The two had just done a run around the compound area and back, testing the Speed Force. Kara had been tracking them, mostly as she was the only one who could follow them at that speed. "I mean…we keep using it over and over and it weakens?"

"I'm not sure," Barry sighed. "We're in uncharted territory with this."

"My advice is save as much as you can," Kara told them as she came forward. "At least until we properly test it."

Barry pulled back his mask and rubbed at his face. "We need all the speed we can get if we want to reach Thanos and stop him."

"We will," Wally pressed. "You hear me, Barry? We're going to get them back."

"If we can't…"

"Hey, hey, don't," Kara said as she stepped forward. "You… _you_ …are not going to start being downcast. Because if Barry Allen can't keep looking at the bright side of things, we're in serious trouble."

"The lass speaks with wisdom." The trio looked over as Thor, Valkyrie and Sif came onto the field. Thor looked her over carefully. "I recognize a warrior's heart when I see it. And you have one that would do my people proud."

Kara looked down. "I'm not a warrior. I don't even like to fight."

"Good," Thor returned. "In my youth, I was a brash figure. I was bold, I was arrogant, I was boastful…"

"This was in your youth?" Valkyrie dryly asked. Sif couldn't help but grin at that.

Ignoring her, Thor went on. "I was convinced the only way to glory was in combat and relished in it. But then I made a mistake. I nearly started a war and my father, rightly as I now know, banished me to Earth. I had to learn humility to regain my place." He looked around. "I used to think of this race as nothing but children but I now see they are far more."

"You are right," Sif noted. "I spent time here myself and learned much of them."

Kara was quiet before speaking. "When I landed here, I was 12. I'd grown up on Krypton, a civilization so far advanced in technology. At first, I thought humans were a primitive society. Sometimes…sometimes I worry that if I didn't grow up with a family as good as the Danvers…I might have turned out like some of the criminals from Fort Rozz, a prison ship."

"We all face that struggle," Thor noted. "Some are able to overcome it better than others." Clearly, he was thinking of Loki as a dark mood settled on the group.

Wally felt the need to break it. "So…you're the God of Thunder?"

"I am. True, my hammer was lost but I have this." Thor held up Stormbreaker.

"Then…how come you seem to only control lightning?"

Sif giggled as Thor glared at her. "I've been saying the same thing for centuries!"

"I was wondering about that myself…" Valkyrie noted.

"It was a title from my father…"

"Yes and you always spoke so well of him…"

"Sif…"

Sif looked to the others. "Don't let his new humility fool you. He relished coming down before some Vikings, create a storm and then have them lavish him with praise and mead."

"I was worshipped once," Kara noted. "I didn't like it."

"He loved it."

"It was a different time!"

Barry couldn't help but smile at the sight of a god being teased like any other human.

* * *

Constantine was moving past Oliver in a hallway. "Where are you going?"

Constantine was lighting a cigarette. "It's not just Allen's Speed Force that's affected here. Magic is different too. I need to do some testing to figure it out."

Oliver sighed. "I never did get into your world, John."

"For the best, mate. It's a hell of a ride."

"I spent a few years in Hell."

"Not like that." Constantine shrugged. "Course, it's a bit different since Lucifer quit."

Oliver blinked. "Wait…what? How can the Devil quit?"

"Quite easily, as it turns out."

"Then…where is he?"

"Last I heard? Running a club in Los Angeles. And a police consultant."

Oliver just stared as John shrugged. "Truth is stranger, mate." He walked off as Oliver just stared after him. Shaking his head, he headed into the conference room where Steve and Coulson were talking. Steve nodded as Oliver came in. "Settling in?"

"We're ready to go as soon as they find something," the archer answered. He took in the two men. "I'm getting things are…tense between you and Stark?"

Cap was quiet before speaking. "A year ago, we were a tight team. Rough in some areas but we trusted one another. Then the government decided we should register, become their agents. Tony backed it up. I disagreed."

"And you fought," Oliver concluded.

"It tore us apart," Cap stated. "Half the team and I have been on the run since. Tony and the rest holding on…"

"And thanks to that, Thanos got as far as he did."

Steve turned to glare at him. "This isn't your world, Queen. You don't know what we've been through, the problems, the issues…"

"No but I know about mistakes," Oliver cut in. "Believe me, I'm an expert at them. I've hurt people. I've gotten people killed because of my mistakes, by trusting the wrong people and not trusting the right ones." He stepped forward. "And I know that right now, none of that matters. Because we need to get on the same page majorly. So whatever issues you and Stark may have? It's time to ignore them because the worlds are counting on us."

Steve raised an eyebrow. "For a man who doesn't claim leadership much, you sure have it down pat."

"Trust me, I've made a lot of missteps along the way."

"That's the best way you learn."

Oliver was about to reply when a crackle of energy filled the air. He instantly had his bow out and ready as a portal emerged out of thin air. From it burst a figure, who knelt on the ground, collecting himself. He rose up, a tall black man clad in a nearly black costume with a pattern making it appear as if blue and white bolts flowed over his chest. A pair of large goggles covered his eyes with his bad head showing well. It soon became apparent an aura of electrical power flowed around him, wisps of lightning flowing around his body in a way that made him almost painful to look at directly.

Seeing the men with weapons drawn, the newcomer raised his hands up. "Easy, easy," he said, his voice containing an odd echo. "Not an enemy. The name's Black Lightning."

Oliver frowned. "I've heard of you. You were operating out of Freeland a decade ago, suddenly popped back up a few months ago."

The man nodded. "And I heard about you too. Just didn't figure we'd meet like this."

Coulson was blinking a bit. "Um…no offense but is there any way you can…turn that down?"

"Huh? Oh, right." The man pulled back his goggles as the electrical aura dimmed. His voice also shifted, the echo lost for a normal baritone. "Sorry, it's a by-product of my powers. Figured out how to enhance it so it helps cover my identity." He brushed at his head. "Jefferson Pierce." He looked at Oliver and grunted. "Huh. So Oliver Queen really is the Green Arrow."

Oliver kicked himself automatically for forgetting his mask. "How are you here?"

"When…it…happened, Freeland was in chaos. I was trying to help out where I could when some weirdo in a blue coat shows up and tells me I'm needed here."

"And you just agreed?" Steve asked.

Pierce looked at him with an expression Steve was finding all too familiar. "My wife…my daughters…my best friend….they're all gone. If there's a chance I can somehow get them back…I'm there."

Steve looked him over and nodded. "Welcome aboard."

The door opened as Tony strolled in. He took in Lightning and frowned. "We should start charging rent."

"What have you got?" Steve pressed.

"That Nebula is telling of a planet named Vormir," Tony stated. "She says the Soul Stone was there and figures it's where Thanos took that Gamora woman. I figure if there's a clue to figuring out where he might be it's there. If nothing else, we can get some readings and maybe more insight to the power we're dealing with."

"Can that spaceship get us there?" Oliver couldn't help but note how Cap seemed to have trouble making that word sound normal but he could hardly blame him.

"It would take a while," Tony stated. "But that Cisco kid thinks he can…vibe…us there. What he calls opening a portal."

"He can get us to another universe, he can get us across space," Oliver stated.

"Hold up," Lightning stated as he held up his hands. "I just got here and you're already talking going to another planet?"

"We can bring you up to speed later," Oliver stated.

"Listen, kid, I'm not here to be a flunky!"

"You're not," Oliver assured him. "But we're all learning to get along."

Steve nodded. "All right, we get a team together. Mix it up, scientists and heavy hitters."

"Not too large," Oliver noted. "Cisco needs to conserve energy."

"He and the others are working on that. And I have some ideas." Tony looked to Cap. "Here. You might need this." He reached behind him and held out a large disc colored with red and white circles and a white star at the center. Steve just stared at it then to Tony who shrugged. "You know me, can never throw anything away."

Steve reached to take the shield, hefting it up. Oliver was struck by two things. First, that somehow, Captain America looked far more whole with this item than he had before. Second, that Coulson was wearing the grin of a kid watching Santa Claus meeting Mickey Mouse.

* * *

Alex spun around to duck a kick from Natasha. She then leapt over a sweep from Nyssa, whose sword impacted Sara's staff. Sara leapt back as she kicked at Nyssa, who easily blocked the blow. Siren was moving in, a kick aimed at Natasha who caught her foot. This let Sara move in to punch Siren in the face, sending her back.

Siren snarled at Sara. "This is just training!"

"Sorry." Sara's voice lacked any sincerity whatsoever. "I have issues with someone with my sister's face who's been going around killing people."

Siren snorted. "And how many people have you killed? Because I'm pretty sure the League in your world is just like mine in that they don't take in pacifists."

"Shut up," Alex barked.

Siren smirked. "Aw, look at this. The super-sister is protecting her one-nighter. I figured you'd be more upset she never gave you a booty call."

Alex was moving in but Natasha managed to stop her. She glared at Siren in a way that made the meta-human shrink back a bit. "I was trained since I was a child to kill you in at least a hundred ways. Most of them painful. I can see a person who's in pain and I know how much of it is just to hide your own."

Siren raised an eyebrow. "This is your superpower? Therapy and self-help advice?"

Widow just stared at her. "Your ledger has a lot of red." She looked to the others behind her. "We all do. Some of us more than others. A lot of it we regret. That's one thing we've all got in common." She returned her gaze to Siren. "I'm willing to give you a chance here. Because someone gave me one once. But that's the only chance you do get. You blow it…"

She backed up but the implication was clear. She was moving back into position as Sara leaned in toward her. "You don't know what she's done."

"And how much of that would you be putting aside if she had a different face?" Sara had to be quiet at that. Natasha nodded. "Like I said…I was given a chance once and I did a lot of bad stuff. Maybe if you give her one, it can change. If not…"

Without hesitation she lifted a baton to block the strike Nyssa was attempting to make. Rather than being upset, Widow had to smile at the attempt at the cheap shot. She responded with one of her own as the sparring session was back on.

In the nearby set of bleachers, Mick took a handful of popcorn and chewed on it. He offered it to Rocket, who just nonchalantly took a piece to chew on. The raccoon drank from his can. "Damn, what is this stuff called again?"

"Beer."

"Holy crapole, I had no idea this little mudball of a planet could make something so good!"

"Welcome to the good life." Mick sipped his own drink as they watched the fight unfold.

* * *

Reaching the astral plane was not a pleasant experience. John Constantine had done it a few times before and always hated it. It was tougher here as he could feel the agony sweeping over his body as he knelt in the small room. Clearly, the connections between this universe's astral field and the human world were trickier and tougher. Thus, he had to feel agony as the world around him shifted and flowed and a chill came over him as he opened his eyes.

Constantine looked about. All he could see was a cloudy wave around him. He frowned as he looked about, trying to see if anything could be spotted.

"It's nice to know there are still new sights to see in the universe."

At the cool voice, Constantine whirled. He found himself facing a woman in a golden robe. She could have been anywhere from her 40s to 60s, the kind of beauty and power that felt timeless. He could also feel an aura of power around her with her smile and bald head masking a seriously strong magician.

"Greetings, John Constantine," she said. "I am the Ancient One. I believe we have much to talk about."

* * *

 **I wasn't going to use Black Lightning at first but hit by an idea how he works into things. I figured making him from the Arrow/Flash Earth was the easiest route.**

 **Some may be bothered by lack of real action but don't worry. The next chapter will make up for it with other turns.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Infinity Crisis**

 **By Michael Weyer**

 **Thanks to those in comments pointing out mistakes in previous chapters I could correct.**

* * *

It had taken the various tech geniuses a few moments to realize Shuri was in a league all by herself. From what Cisco, Caitlin and Ray had gathered from the talk of this world's heroes, Wakanda had spent years pretending to be the typical third-world African nation. Just a few months earlier, king T'Challa had revealed that to be a façade to hide the fact Wakanda was nearly a century ahead of the rest of the planet in terms of technology. They'd been dubious at that at first but Shuri was proving it was right.

"As you can see," she said, pointing at the gauntlets on Cisco's hands. "These will help channel your abilities and give an enhancement. It should allow you to break through the gravitational pull of Earth and thus be able to open a portal to this other world. "

"Vibranium," Caitlin noted as she checked the glowing energy in the tubes of the gauntlets. "An energy and sound-absorbing mineral. That's just amazing, we don't have anything like that in our world."

"It's only in Wakanda," Shuri stated. She was wearing a nice outfit that looked professional but still maintaining her roots. Her usual cheerfulness was toned down but came off exuberant compared to Okoye. The warrior stood nearby in her red uniform, the light shining off her bald head and gazed at the visitors from Earth-1 with a cool expression. "My brother…wanted to share it with the world but…"

Her voice trailed off with a tone the group was already familiar with. "I'm sorry," Ray softly said. "Trust me, we've been there."

Captain America adjusted his shield. He had switched to a different uniform, mostly blue with a white star at his chest and red and white stripes at his midsection. A battle-styled mask with an "A" emblem was over his head. "Who's in charge of Wakanda now? I mean…you're next in line."

Shuri shook her head. "The throne is not for me. It never was. M'Baku stands as regent, he's doing his best to help keep control. It's just…a mess right now." She sighed. "T'Challa wanted to open us to the rest of the world. But not like this."

Naturally, Tony had to pipe up in an attempt to break the sour mood. "Been wanting to check Wakanda out, some of your stuff is pretty impressive. I have to admit, had suspicions you were more than you let on but no idea that big." He shrugged. "I was thinking I could use some of your tech to give mine boost.

"Oh, I saw your armor," Shuri said. "It's…cute."

Tony blinked. "Cute?'

"I built a suit just like it."

"Well, some try but…"

"When I was five."

Tony blinked and Steve couldn't help smirking at seeing him taken down a notch. "Well, sure but I did my first armor in a cave, you were in a high-tech lab…"

"In my room."

"Right. Room. Okay…"

Oliver snapped at him. "I get seeing this guy taken down a peg is pleasing to you but can we focus?" The rest of the group had assembled in the lab. Jane was nearby, working on a chart and then bringing it over on a computer pad. "All right, I used the information from that ship of theirs and what Nebula told us. I have it all worked out with the coordinates and gravitational pull." She keyed a series of numbers into the pad on Cisco's gauntlets. "This should help you focus and open the portal there."

"And get back?" Tony asked. "That's sort of an important part of this."

"It's untested," Jane admitted. "But I figure it'll work."

"One way to find out." Cisco moved to the center of the room with the others falling back. Taking a deep breath, he focused himself carefully. He felt the energies of his body working with the gauntlets and let out a shiver at the extra charge. Lunging forward, he threw out his hands and a breach formed before him.

Tony touched his wrist and in a flow of metal and energy, his armor formed around him, a fresh suit he'd had as a backup. He touched his wrist and a small globe fired out from his back. It entered the breach, vanishing within it. Inside the armor, Tony looked at his interior viewscreen to see a planet before him. "Okay….okay…it looks set. I'm reading the right atmospheric levels so we don't need suits."

Steve nodded. "All right. Queen, Tony, Caitlin, Quake, Steel, Flash, Supergirl and Sif are with us. The rest stay here as backup. We go there and get the layout and then get out."

"I'm going too," Nebula declared. "If my sister is there…"

Steve nodded in acceptance. "All right." He looked at the glowing breach and took a deep breath. "Does it…hurt?"

"You get used to it," Barry assured him. Steve seemed dubious but after a shrug, he went through it. The others followed with Vibe the last as the portal winked out.

Natasha shook her head at Clint. "Remember when it was just us and the occasional horde of terrorists?"

"Good times. We should have relished them more."

* * *

Steve took in the area the group found themselves in. It appeared to be some sort of huge altar at the top of a mountain range, the massive rocky terrain surrounding them. It was cold with some snow blowing but not too freezing. Oliver himself shivered as he joined him. "The weather is cold."

"I've been through worse," Steve stated. "Trust me…I'm more than used to cold." He looked to Iron Man. "Anything?"

"No life readings I can see," Tony answered. "Then again, in a place like this, who knows?"

"You ok?" Oliver asked.

The sight was clear under the armor. "Handling it like everyone. It's just…I'm used to trying to fix the world…And now I'm realizing that I may have gone about it the wrong way." Steve couldn't help listening to that. "Maybe if things were different…"

Oliver shook his head. "I've been through enough regrets to know wasting time on what could have been does nothing. Just keep fighting for a tomorrow."

"And it's a bad one?'

Oliver shrugged. "If you can't stop the tide of events….At least be there to mop up the damage."

"You'd get a page like that in Reader's Digest."

Kara was looking around, peering about. "I'm not seeing any life anywhere around us. Not for a hundred miles."

Quake looked at her with surprise. "You can see that far?"

Kara nodded as she looked up at the dark skies and winced. "Damn, the cloud cover is blocking me to the sun."

"Solar energy?" Tony spoke up. "Saw the way you were outside a lot before we left."

"I lose it under a red sun but this can still cut me down. The sooner we're out of here, the better."

Cisco was studying the large columns with interest. "This thing looks ancient as hell."

Nate was studying the markings on the columns. "Looks like ancient writing, no way I can tell what it is. This thing has been here for…centuries, maybe longer. Just sitting here for who knows what reason."

"Its purpose has been served."

Everyone spun around with various weapons raised. They saw a figure coming down the stairs, his body and head covered by a dark cloak. "But it remains my prison." The figure came forward, the hood slowly falling back to expose a face that looked like it lacked any skin except for the eyes, no nose and a color as red as blood.

Cap's eyes widened and his jaw dropped open in utter shock. " _Schmidt_?!"

"Rogers." The figure snorted (despite his lack of a nose). "Of course. What else could make my Hell complete but to have your moralizing haunting me for all of eternity?"

Cap shook his head. "How…how can you be alive?"

"Wait, you know this guy?" Kara blurted.

Quake's own face was cold. "Johann Schmidt. Aka the Red Skull. The first recipient of the Super-Soldier Serum which enhanced his strength, warped his features and drove him insane. Founder and first leader of the modern HYDRA."

"As in the Greek myth?" Cisco asked.

"More like a pack of Nazis that were even worse than the main ones," Daisy snapped.

The Skull looked at Cap. "You must have suspected, Captain. When you saw me vanish into the Tesseract, you must have wondered if it destroyed me or merely transported me. It did to this world. Where I have been trapped for over 70 years. So close to a source of the power I long wanted but unable to touch it. Never eating. Never sleeping. No rest, no life to my own."

"Gee, how terrible," Tony sarcastically said. "I'd be more sympathetic if you and Hitler didn't use to be tea buddies."

Cap straightened up, his shock fading. "I'm willing to agree with him. I saw what you did in the war, Skull. The bodies, the good men, women and children you killed without a second thought. The hell you unleashed with HYDRA. Whatever pain you've felt here…It's just what you deserve."

"Hold up," Cisco suddenly spoke up. "We're talking…World War II? How the hell are you so young?"

"Cisco," Barry hissed. "Not the time."

"Just curious…"

"Still so proud, Rogers," the Skull scoffed. "I'd had more than enough time to reflect on what has happened. My connection to the Soul allowed me to see what occurred on Earth with Hydra…To see my force come so close to victory and then utter defeat." He shook his head. "So much time and energy…wasted."

"Still not feeling the sympathy," Tony intoned.

Oliver stepped in. "I'm really not a fan of Nazis."

"Oh, you had those on your Earth too?" Tony asked.

"Actually, we just fought a world of them," Barry said. "Which had evil doppelgangers of Oliver and Kara who were married."

Iron Man stared at him. "Your biographies need cliff notes."

The Skull walked about carefully. "I was here when Thanos came. I told him what I have told others. To gain the Soul Stone, one must sacrifice the thing they love the most. Many have nothing to love. Others refuse. Thanos…did not." He stopped at the edge of the massive cliff and looked down.

The others leaned over the cliff's edge to look down with him. Nebula hissed in a breath as she saw the body lying down below. In a blur, Kara leapt down, flying to grab the body. She flew upward, carefully holding the limp and shattered form of a beautiful green-skinned woman with long red hair in a leather outfit. She carefully laid it down as Nebula fell to her knees before the body.

"Gamora?" Tony asked even though he already knew the answer. Nebula nodded, a tear coming out of her one normal eye. Kara put a hand to her shoulder to offer as much comfort as she could.

"Thanos has what he needs now," the Skull stated. "This planet…there is no more need for it…Or a Keeper."

That sixth sense instilled in him over years of combat warned Steve in time to spin around, his shield raised up. It took the blow of the metallic gauntlet hard, the impact enough to have everyone spin around. The Skull had stripped off the cloak to reveal an athletic body clad in a dark suit that seemed to bristle with power.

"You didn't buy my talk of regret?" he asked in a mocking tone.

"Not for a second," Steve snarled. The rest of the group were ready as the Skull backed up. "Let me guess. Thanos offered you a deal?"

"Stay here for eternity or fight for him?" The Skull smirked. "Not much of a choice."

"Sure, you serve one Fuhrer, what's another?" Quake cracked.

"An Earth stripped of half its populace. A world weakened and in chaos." The Skull's smile was a horrible sight. "It is time for HYDRA to rise once more."

Nate snorted. "For a bunch of guys who like to talk about remaking the future, you Nazis sure do love living in the past."

"You'll feel our power soon enough, boy."

"Attack us when we've got you outnumbered," Tony noted. "Nice to see the Nazi military brilliance still remains."

The Skull smiled as he held out his arms. A chill came over the area as from the shadows emerged a slew of figures. Each had skin utterly white and blue and it was quite clear there were, in essence, walking ice.

"Oh, sweet White Walkers," Cisco whispered.

"Frost Giants?!" Sif gasped.

The Skull smiled. "Let us say…Thanos has an affinity for strays from what was once Asgard."

Steve grunted as he lifted his shield and the fight was on.

* * *

"Ancient One," Constantine noted. "Don't look it."

"Thank you." The woman looked him over. "Is there a problem?"

"Sorry. You just remind me of a prat of a fallen angel I used to know."

The Ancient One paced the area carefully. "Time is of the essence so let us cut the banter. The souls of those lost are not truly dead. Not as you may think of it."

"So, limbo?" Constantine shrugged. "Not my favorite place to be frank, impossible to get a decent drink there."

The Ancient One studied him. "You and Steven are much alike…although you have walked different paths. He was arrogant and rich and had to be brought low in order to unlock his true potential. You came from common roots…"

"Not as common as you'd think."

"Yet you chose a path to aid others. But now, the balance of magic, like all else, has been undone. Earth has no Sorcerer Supreme. The only one who could reach Strange's level was Mordo and he too is lost."

Constantine arched an eyebrow. "Hope you're not looking at me to take his place. I don't do the ceremonial stuff."

The Ancient One smiled. "That I can readily see. To continue, the souls of those lost are not deceased. Rather they reside…within the Soul and Mind Stones."

That got Constantine's attention. "How?"

"Because that moron, Thanos, has no conception of the power he holds." A man stepped into view, a handsome figure with black hair in a dark green cloak and armor with gold trimmings. "Honestly, the ultimate power of reality in the hands of one short-sighted, it's appalling."

"Loki," the Ancient One stated. "You are hardly in the position to criticize the misuse of power."

"Don't remind me," the man muttered.

Constantine frowned. "Loki? Thor said you were dead."

"I am," the godling sighed. "As much as I would love it to be otherwise, I couldn't cheat my way out of my final fate. However, death for my kind isn't quite as…quick as it is with your mortals. I was hoping to be able to contact someone of power and might to aid us." He looked Constantine over. "Instead, I get a boozing chain-smoking egotistical Englishman whose manners make Stark look like my mother."

"Guilty," Constantine said. "But right now, I'm the best you got. So what's this about the Stones?"

"The power they contain is greater than Thanos himself could dream of," the Ancient One began. "Yet they are tied into the universe. They are part of the balance needed to maintain reality. In a way, they are…alive. Not quite intelligent but a life nonetheless. When Thanos used them for his wish, to destroy half the universe, the Stones were able to know it was wrong. Yet they could not rebel."

Constantine's eyes lit up in understanding. "So they found a loophole."

"Indeed," Loki stated. "The Mind and Soul Stones are capable of taking those lost within them. Trillions from across the multiverse, trapped inside a world of their own which the Reality Stone aided in bringing about. Thanos himself has no idea as his connection to the ultimate power of the Stones has been dimmed with the Gauntlet burned out."

"So without the Gauntlet, he's weak?"

"Not enough," Loki admitted. "All that power left a resonance in him. It still makes him an incredible force in combat, not a god by any means. But given the man laid waste to worlds before he got the power of the Gauntlet, even a touch of it left within him means he's stronger than a hundred Asgardians."

"The Stones are the key," the Ancient One pressed. "They can hold the souls and minds of those people in their own universe. However, it will not be indefinite. You must find a way to release them before they are forever lost."

Constantine was pacing. "So basically, find a way to crack the Stones and it can restore the folks trapped. Problem being, it's gonna be a major feat."

"Yes so maybe time to cut down on any drinking," Loki dryly stated.

"Now, now, don't be down, mate. When it comes to being a conniving bastard, you are speaking to the valedictorian of the school of dirty tricks." He smirked. "Thankfully, my scheming mind combined with the smarts of that lot should find a way out of it."

"And if you cannot?"

"Don't be a downer, mate. Honestly, you gods can be such a bunch of stuffy morons. Live a little."

Loki just stared at him, then at the Ancient One. "I think I finally realize what it's like to talk to myself. No wonder people are irritated by me."

"Yes, that's the reason," the Ancient One dryly stated.

Loki looked to Constantine. "This man killed me. I have lived millennia, I have cheated death constantly and Thor can tell you of my genius at double-crossing and he killed me. You think you can outwit him?"

"Mate," Constantine smirked. "I once got all three lords of Hell to cure a friend of cancer by agreeing to sell my soul to each and walked out of it. I think I can handle one purple-skinned prat."

Loki looked him in the eye…and smiled. "Oh, I like him."

The Ancient One wasn't quite sure if that was something to be pleased over.

* * *

Kara flew overhead to avoid a strike from one of the giants, twisting about. She fired her heat vision to burn at the giant, who snarled in agony as he fell back. Barry was racing about, punching at another as Oliver fired an arrow that exploded against another. Sif was dodging a shot to smash her sword into a giant's face as Tony fired off his missiles. Nate was backing up toward Caitlin who was joining Nebula in trying to keep Gamora's body safe from the conflict.

Cap threw out his shield at the Skull who caught it in his hand. In the same move, Cap leapt forward to slam his feet against the shield, knocking the Skull off-balance. Transforming himself into Steel, Nate lunged forward and smashed his fist against the Skull's face, knocking him back. Steve followed with a kick as Steel sent out a blow that knocked the Skull back.

"Good job," Cap noted.

Nate smirked. "Family tradition."

Daisy let out a blast of energy that sent two giants flying against a wall. "Aim for the chest!" Sif cried out. "It's their weak point!"

Barry dodged a strike only for another giant to slam his ice axe into the ground. Unable to dodge in time, Barry tripped over the hole he created and fell to his knees. He was looking up in time to see one giant break away from the pack and rush at Caitlin and Nebula. "Caitlin!" he yelled out.

The woman turned in time to see the creature lunge at her with a spear. She turned but not in enough time so it slammed into her right shoulder, pinning her against the wall with a scream. Kara was flying over to tackle the giant down to the ground. At the same time, Iron Man fired a blast from his gauntlet to knock back the giant over Barry. A second later, he was with Cisco at Caitlin's side. "Cait, are you okay?" he breathed.

"I…" Caitlin shivered. "I…feel…" Her eyes snapped open, now a bright and cold blue. Her hair flowed from dark brown to white as her skin grew pale. Her lips were now blue as she straightened up, pulling the ice spear out of her shoulder. "I feel…good."

Cisco broke out in a grin. "Welcome back, Killer Frost!"

"Cisco…it's me."

"Yeah, I know and you may be confused but…"

"No…it's _me_."

Cisco and Barry exchanged confused looks as they realized that Caitlin was still in control. Daisy was moving toward them, firing off blasts of shockwaves at the giants. "Can we focus here?"

"Focus. Right." Caitlin took a deep breath and marched over, her hand forming a long sword of ice that she used to smash one giant down.

Oliver fired an arrow that slammed into a giant's chest before exploding against him. He saw the Skull handling blows from Cap and Nate, his suit seeming to absorb some of the impact. He moved over to punch at the Skull as well, who backed up against the assault. "Give it up, Skull!" Steve snapped. "I'm not letting you back to Earth!"

"Let me?" the Skull chuckled. "Oh, Rogers…You still think so small." He waved his hand and a glow flowed about one of his gauntlets. A blast of air echoed about as a dark portal opened behind him. As one, the surviving giants moved to it as the Skull backed up as well. "The war has just begun, _Herr_ Captain. And against my reborn HYDRA…there is no SHIELD."

He vanished into the portal as the rest of the group gathered. "Still the flair for the dramatic," Steve muttered.

"Thanos must have given him some sort of teleport technology," Quake speculated. "What did he mean by that last line?'

Oliver's eyes widened in horrified understanding. "Get us back to Earth. Now!"

Iron Man and Captain America shared looks as they realized just what Green Arrow did and how things were getting worse than they thought.

* * *

Mick was, of course, drinking a beer as the group came back from the lab. "Hey," he said. "Looks like we got company." He nodded to the two people in dark uniforms standing there, a handsome man and an attractive woman.

Clint broke into a grin as he came over. "Scott, my man."

Scott Lang accepted the smile and hug. Next to him, Hope Van Dyne nodded at the group. "We just got out of the quantum realm when we found all hell breaking loose. We figured coming here was the smart move."

"Quantum realm?"

"A subatomic dimension under ours," Hope said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Wait…you guys shrink?" Ray had a huge smile on his face. "Hey, me too! How small you get?"

"Oh, like we said, subatomic."

"Grow?"

"Yep. 65 feet."

"Damn. Only did it once, reached about 50 myself."

Hope was annoyed but also curious. "By yourself or a suit?"

"Oh, suit. Well, armor really, it's in the next lab over."

"I'd like to see that."

"So would I," Shuri piped up. "Dwarf star technology? I have to get a crack at it!"

Okoye glared at her. "We should return to Wakanda at once."

"We're needed here."

"Princess…"

"I'm sorry, did we not agree you are never to call me that?" Shuri smiled at the others. "She's such a mother hen."

Siren was leaning against a wall with a tired sigh. "At least the super-geeks I know aren't so damn cheerful."

Alex glared at her. "Are you always this sardonic?"

"I see it as a by-product of my powers."

Shuri shook her head. "I am needed here."

"Why? Just to mock that Stark?" Okoye shook her head. "Building a suit of armor in your room when you were five, honestly, Shuri..."

Shrui rolled her eyes. "All right, all right, I was having some fun with him. Come on, admit it, the fact he actually believed it said a lot."

Okoye shook her head. "Still no understanding of the world."

"Hey, I've been that age," Thea replied. "You're a teenager, you think you're immortal."

"Sadly, we all know the one sure-fire way to cure that attitude."

"Doesn't always last," Sara muttered.

During this, Thor had realized Jefferson Pierce was looking his axe over. "Something you find curious?"

"Just feeling the way that channels electricity," Jefferson noted. "I'm wondering if there's a way I can fuel myself off it. Or vice versa."

Thor seemed intrigued. "I have never met a mortal capable of channeling the lightning. We should test it and-"

Whatever else he was about to say was cut off by a loud booming sound from outside. A rumble came over the lab as everyone was alert. In a flurry of motion, the various heroes, with Coulson and Jane following. They burst into the outside where several soldiers who had joined with Coulson were gathered, rifles raised. Standing across the field were a horde of figures in dark armor, their heads covered in helmets that highlighted their large ears. Leading them was a figure who was removing his mask to reveal alien features with one half of his face scarred in black .

Jane gasped. "Is…it that…"

"Malekith," Thor snarled. "How are you alive?"

The figure glared at him. "I was swallowed by the Dark Aether. What you call the Reality Stone. Brief in mortal years but to me, an eternity of pain and agony. I was trapped until one came to free me. And all he asked for in return was the one thing I was more than willing to give him." His eyes narrowed. "The heads of the last Asgardians."

Thor held up Stormbreaker. "You wish war again, Accursed?"

The dark elf cocked his head. "War? That implies opposition."

Thea had her bow raised and aimed at his head. "For an elf, you've got crappy eyesight."

"How about head back to Rivendell, asshole?" Alex remarked, her gun in her hand. She saw Sara give her a look. "Come on, I do see movies."

Malekith sneered. "I did not come alone, Prince of Nothing." He looked to the side. "I believe you already know my…associate."

A flow of shadows emerged from nowhere before coming into a human form. It was a strikingly gorgeous woman with long and lush black hair, clad in a green and black outfit that fit over her body like a second skin. Her bright eyes gleamed behind the smoky skin around them and her lips were curled into a wicked smile. "Hello, little brother."

Thor's eyes were wide in amazement. "Hela." Behind him, Valkyrie stiffened and her hands gripped her sword. "I thought you were dead."

"I'm the Goddess of Death, little brother," the woman sneered. "You think a fire demon enough to stop me?"

"That's your sister?" Thea shook her head. "And I thought my family was screwed up."

"Is it too late to go back to prison?" Scott piped up.

"As it happens, someone who wants to bring trillions into my kingdom is someone I find most intriguing," Hela stated. "Plus, I do hate to leave a job unfinished." She frowned as she looked at Thor's face. "You found a new eye? Ah, well, I'll just have to tear out both this time around."

Malekith let out a bark in his own language. As one, the dark elves brought out their weapons and aimed them at the group. Hela smiled as a huge horned helmet flowed around her head. "Ah, I do so love killing mortals. It's so easy to-"

What else she was going to say was cut off by a blast of energy that smashed into her chest and sent her flying backward. She landed right into the front pack of elves, sending them back in an undignified heap.

The group turned to see the source of the blast. Floating before them was a gorgeous blonde woman in a tight fitting suit. It was mostly navy blue but the top half of the chest was marked in red with a center symbol that looked like a bright glowing star. Around her waist was a long red wrap that somehow seemed to work with the rest of the outfit.

"Hi there," she said in a strong voice. "The name's Carol Danvers. Someone left me a message."

* * *

 **Obviously, this is written before "Ant-Man and the Wasp" so just guessing how Scott and Hope survived the Snap. But as you can see, the stakes are being raised and next chapter shows them growing even more.**

 **BTW, if you didn't know, Constantine's line to the Ancient One on reminding him of a "prat of a fallen angel" is a reference to Tilda Swinton's role in the "Constantine" movie.**

 **And did throw in the line of Shuri trolling Stark late in to settle the "built a suit at five" was just a joke.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Infinity Crisis**

 **By Michael Weyer**

* * *

Klaus Richter tapped his fingers on the large table. He gazed at the dozen men and women around him, all in nice suits who returned his gaze carefully. "Our current status?" he asked. The room was dark, marked with monitors all around them, the huge table carrying a symbol that resembled a head flowing into a set of tentacles in a dark circle.

"Obviously, we've lost half our resources," a woman stated. "But we have actually seemed to gain a few more. People who feel let down by the government not reacting swift enough."

"But we lost a bunch in the last go-around with SHIELD," a man spoke up. "We can organize but it will take time."

Richter nodded. He hadn't been head of HYDRA for long but he was determined not to make the mistakes of his forbearers. "Very well. Right now, things are a total mess and we've lost a few top contacts in the governments. But we can just wait this initial mass panic out and build up our resources. Give a year or two and we can move out more."

"A year or two." Everyone spun about at the sound of the dark accented voice cutting through the air. The pair of guards drew their weapons to aim at the man entering the dark room with a hood and cloak around them. "The world is at a weak point. A moment perfect to strike…and you wish to wait."

"Who are you?" Richter demanded as he rose to his feet.

"Who are _you_?" the man returned. "You spent decades ensuring Hydra was quiet and hidden away. Working behind the scenes before you struck…and you couldn't even get the job done." He slowly paced around the table, not seeming to notice the guns trained on him. "This is not what HYDRA is meant to be. We are meant to conquer. To rule. One does not do that by hiding." He waved at the table. "This is what it has come to? Board meetings like a filthy American corporation? Debating measures? This is not HYDRA. This is not what it was meant to be."

Richter snorted. "And you think you know better? What would you want us to do?"

"I want…" The man pulled back his cloak to show the suit he wore. "For you fools…" He yanked back the hood to show the bright red face. "To _stop destroying my dream_!"

The stares of utter shock were worth all the agony he'd undergone in the last 70 years. Even the guards lowered their weapons as they took in the face any Hydra agent knew by heart. Richter was frozen in utter disbelief. "You….You can't…" Richter shook his head. "You can't be…"

With a quick motion, the Skull thrust out his hand to let a spray of mist fly into his face. Richter hacked for air, clutching at his throat. Foam bubbled at his mouth as he let out a horrific rattle before collapsing face first onto the table. Before the horrified eyes of the others, the skin around his face darkened, becoming a bright crimson. At the same time, it seemed to tighten and peel until his face resembled…a red skull.

"God almighty," one board member whispered.

"A poor analogy," the Skull stated. He looked down the table at the others. "I am the Red Skull. The true one. And this…is not what I wished. Not to stay in the shadows while the world is ripe for the picking. No…No, our time has come." He held out the hand and everyone reflexively leaned back. The Skull simply smiled. "Join me or suffer. Decide quickly, _Mein freunds_ …We have a world to win."

* * *

"Danvers?" Rocket looked to Alex. "Any relation?"

"How the hell should I know?"

The woman was glaring at the rising Hela and Malekith. "Well, I'm pretty sure I know the bad guys when I see them."

Hela was snarling as she rose up, a knife forming in her hand and flying out. Carol spun around in the air to avoid it before bringing her hands together. A blast of energy ripped out from them and struck Hela full on, sending her back with a gasp.

Malekith was rising up and letting out a roar in his language. His warrior moved in, their weapons raised. Without hesitation, Thea let her arrow loose, letting it hit one elf. She cursed as she saw it bounce off the man, realizing the armor was tougher than it looked. Nyssa, however, had her own arrow firing off to bury itself into the creature's eye.

Mick raised up his gun and fired a blast of flame that drove several elves back. "Damn, nice!" Rocket noted as he hefted his gun to fire off several blasts. "How much you want for it?"

"Negotiate price later," Mick returned as he fired.

Coulson fired off shots from his gun as he smiled at the flying woman. "Carol."

"Phil." She looked him over. "Huh. You look….almost exactly the same."

"Thanks. So do you."

"Long story."

"Used to it." Coulson just fired off more shots as Carol flew downward. She let out another blast to drive a pair of elves back. Nearby, Alex was firing off a borrowed machine gun while Siren let out a cry, the sonic blast knocking a few elves away.

Scott and Hope exchanged nods as they pulled on their helmets. In a blur, they seemed to vanish. In reality, that had shrunk down and soon attacking Malekith, hitting the man with blasts as he grimaced.

Thor brought up Stormbreaker, the electricity crackling as he charged at Hela. He smashed it against her jaw, driving her back. "Destroying Asgard was not enough?" he demanded. "You would war on this world too?"

"Technically, you destroyed Asgard, brother. I merely wanted to rule."

"And damn all before you." Thor was lunging in when Hela grabbed his arm, holding him back. She was about to punch him when another blast of lightning hit her. She gasped as Black Lightning moved in, firing off more blasts to drive her back.

Okoye was using her spear to smash an elf back. Sara was spinning her own staff around as she fought with her and Clint was firing off his own arrows with one exploding against an elf. Valkyrie was lunging forward, slicing her sword at Hela who barely dodged a deadly blow.

It was at this point, a portal opened with Kara flying out of it. She took one look at the situation and realized anyone fighting her allies was the bad guy. She flew out, fists raised to smash into Hela, sending her flying back. Kara flew upward before realizing she wasn't alone.

"Hey," the blonde woman said, looking her over with mild surprise. "Looks like I'm not the only flying blonde around."

"Ditto," Kara returned. I'm Supergirl."

"Call me Captain Marvel."

"Pleasure. So, bad guys?"

"I'm guessing. I just got here."

Hela looked at the others rushing out of the portal and cursed. "Fine…another time. But…" Her gaze dashed about before landing on one particular person. With a smirk, she threw out her hand, a tendril of dark energy flowing about before forming a whip. It wrapped itself around the waist of Jane, who let out a gasp. Hela simply smiled as she waved a hand, mist flowing about her, Malekith, the elves and Jane. Thor was lunging forward but too late as they all vanished.

Ray just shook his head. "Honestly, can we just once go through one of these things without someone getting captured by the bad guys?"

* * *

"Where's Thor?" Cap asked a few minutes later as the group made its way into the conference room.

"Sif and Valkyrie are trying to calm him down," Tony stated. "Figured they'd have better luck than us."

"Good. I get his feelings but we can't go off half-cocked yet." Cap looked to Carol. "And you are?"

"Carol Danvers, formerly U.S. Air Force." She looked him over. "So…you're _the_ Captain America? Wow, never thought I'd meet you."

"Carol was with SHIELD on a mission back in 1995," Coulson explained. "It's complicated but she was exposed to some alien energy which gave her special powers."

"Flight and energy blasts, I can tell," Kara noted. "What else?"

"Enhanced strength, energy-absorbing, durability, mini-force field if I need to go into space." Carol was examining her. "You're obviously not human."

"It's complex."

"I get it." Carol looked to the others. "I've been spending the last few years with the Kree. An alien race who were tied into the same experiment that gave me my powers. And before you ask, looks like a by-product is that it's slowed my aging down so I don't look as old as I should."

"Fury never mentioned you," Cap noted.

Tony snorted. "You can fill a library with all the stuff Fury never told us." Cap had to acknowledge that.

"In space all this time?" Oliver questioned. "You know what's been happening on Earth?'

"I do keep track," Carol confirmed. "We get the occasional traders who sell stuff and a lot of species who watch the planet for various reasons. Plus, TV signals do travel into space. So I know who won the last few Presidential elections and World Series. Am behind on some stuff of pop culture. For example, still haven't found out how _Lost_ ended." She grinned. "And hey, it is true there are new _Star Wars_ movies? That must be awesome, folks must love them to death."

More than a few people exchanged looks of "I'm not saying it." Coulson coughed to speak up. "I am happy to see you. Do you…know of the situation here?"

I was with the Kree when the…thing…happened," Carol went on. "Half their empire just vanished. Naturally, they assumed it was the Skrulls, another alien race. The two of them have been at war for thousands of years and were ready to go at it again. I was hoping to intercede when I got this." She held up a small pager. "I gave one half of it to Fury just in case. Looks like this was finally the reason to do it."

"Good to have you on then," Cap said. "Because we need all the help we can get."

"The Red Skull…" Coulson shook his head. "I can't believe he's back.

"70 years on another planet," Daisy said. "Looks like it drove him crazy."

Steve scoffed. "Trust me, that was a short ride."

"And Hela," Bruce spoke up. "Take it from me, that lady is nasty. The eye Thor's wearing? It's a replacement, she tore out his real one."

"Damn, lost out on a great short-sighted joke," Clint muttered.

"Looks like Thanos realized we took out his old running crew so got a new one," Tony summed up.

"Great, the guy's got his own Legion of Doom," Nate muttered.

"A Nazi, a dark elf and the goddess of Death?" Cisco shook his head. "More like a Masters of Evil."

Scott rubbed at his face. "Seriously, is prison still an option?"

Clint looked over at him. "Have you heard from your family?"

Scott looked down. "Phone lines are a mess, Internet has crashed…I want to think they just can't talk. I want to." It was obvious that not knowing for sure was what was keeping him going and Clint couldn't argue with that approach.

The door opened as Thor entered. He still looked mad but calmer than before. "We need to get her back," he said in what was more of an announcement."

"We will." Steve's voice was a promise. "But they took her to keep you off-balance. You're one of our big guns and we can't have you distracted right now."

Barry was tapping his fingers on the table so fast they were almost burning a hole into it. "This still doesn't fix the key issue. Which is how to undo what Thanos did and get everyone back."

"Now there's an entrance cue if I ever heard it." Everyone turned to see Constantine moving into the room. More than a few eyes went wide as they saw the green-garbed figure walking beside him.

"Loki." Thor was moving, his arms wide open as he went to Loki. The other man was holding up his hands in warning but couldn't say anything before Thor passed right through him, landing face first on a table.

Loki couldn't help but smile lightly as he shook his head. "I'm not even trying and you _still_ fall for that."

Thor frowned as he rose up. He was looking at the other figure before his face fell. "You're…not…"

"Alive and well? Sadly, no. In fact, I'm only here and visible thanks to what this oaf," he nodded to Constantine. "Did with a special spell. Otherwise…well, let's just say it's not that fun."

Nate leaned in toward Ray. "This is when you know you've been at this job for too long. We're talking to the ghost of a Norse god and I'm not even surprised by it." Ray and Sara both had to nod at that.

Loki looked to the others and offered a smile. "Surprise" he said in a sing-song voice. He glanced to Widow. "Huh. I preferred you as a redhead." She just glared at him as he nodded to Steve. "Captain. Oh and Barton, no hard feelings, I hope."

Clint just glared. "I'm really hoping your death was painful."

Thea leaned in to whisper at Rhodey. "What's his beef?'

"Loki once mind-controlled him into killing people."

"Ah. Been there."

Loki crossed his arms. "As much as I love some nice banter and I am lacking in conversation in the afterlife, time is short. So to bring you up to speed, the souls of those lost in the wave are trapped within the Soul stone of the Gauntlet. Your mission, should you choose to accept it although from what I can tell, none of you have any real choice, is to find a way to crack the Stone and thus free the souls." He smiled. "There you have it, quite simple."

Oliver stared at him. "Get into Infinity Stone."

"Get inside it," Tony added.

"On a gauntlet held by a guy who may not be all-powerful but still damn close to it," Kara stated.

"And somehow destroy it," Barry wrapped it all up.

"See? Simple."

Sif rolled her eyes. "You're actually more annoying in death than you were in life."

"Now are you still upset about that hair dye job? That was 500 years ago, Sif, really…"

"Loki," Thor cut in. "You know it can't be that simple."

"True," Loki admitted. "But come now, brother, you have a group here. Your Avengers can help and most of their visitors."

"Most?" Cap asked.

Loki shrugged. "Constantine did fill me on some of the exploits of these 'Legends' and frankly, I wouldn't trust that bunch to make a beer run without finding a way to cause chaos."

"Hey," Nate spoke up.

Loki fixed him with a gaze. "Should I start listing them off? Such as pulling Helen of Troy into the 1930s and then dropping her off to be an Amazon? Creating a new reality ruled by a trio of villains? Or inspiring Vikings to conquer North America? And that Beebo thing, that is just blowing the mind."

Sara was giving an ugly look at Constantine as everyone else (including Barry, Oliver and Kara) were exchanging rather baffled looks. Tony leaned in toward Oliver. "I thought you vouched for these people."

"In my defense, we didn't know about the Vikings."

"Or the Helen of Troy thing," Barry said. "And I'm pretty sure we don't want to know about Beebo."

"You don't," Ray confirmed.

Sara faced the others. "Okay, we may screw up but we have also saved the universe a few times. And we can do it again. I'm confident of it."

"I think you're confusing confidence with forlorn hope," Loki dryly stated.

"Hey, if you're so smart, why are you dead?"

Loki opened his mouth to reply, then closed it when he couldn't. Thor couldn't help but chuckle at that. "You have any suggestions, brother?"

Loki was pacing, walking right through a chair as he did. "I only knew Thanos briefly…"

"How?" Steve asked.

Loki had an uncomfortable look. "He…gave me the scepter and the army I used to attack Earth."

That got a lot of angry looks. "That was him?" Steve demanded. "You were working for him?"

"Oh, right, I might not have fully mentioned that part to them," Bruce remarked.

"With, not for," Loki snapped. "And my plan was to use his resources to get the throne I thought at the time I deserved and then double-cross him and hide the Tesseract away. Because whatever else you may think of me, I am not going to agree with the insanity of wiping out half the universe." He shrugged. "Of course, things took turns I wasn't quite anticipating and in retrospect, it was a…misjudgment."

"Misjudgment?" Natasha shook her head. "If you weren't already dead, I'd kick your ass."

"Charming." Loki looked to the others. "The point is, I know the man. Sadly, we are much alike in that we can cover up our own dark desires in some sort of grand crusade and deeper meaning. I truly believed at the time Asgard and Earth would be better under my rule. Thanos continues to believe he's bringing some sort of grand balance to the universe when he's just a madman with a genocidal bent."

"No wonder you got along," Tony muttered.

"Remind me again, Stark, how did you make your fortune in the first place?" Loki returned. "Don't be casting stones around here." He brushed at his hair (an odd move for a spirit) as he continued. "Back on track, the man has an ego. He wants to get rid of any opposition by any means. He will strike at some epic spot for one major final battle. Something he can use to crow about and justify his crusade more. He's coming to Earth, one way or another."

"And he'll have the Gauntlet," Oliver said in understanding.

Tony shook his head. "We had him stopped and me and Peter pulling but barely able to nearly get it off."

"Maybe it's not strength," Barry put in. "It can be speed. Me and Wally at high velocity grabbing that thing…"

"Maybe," Tony allowed. "But you said you two weren't as fast."

Black Lightning coughed as they looked at him. "Listen, I know I'm still behind on this speed stuff but…I can sense electricity as part of my powers. I sense a lot used when you two run, it's not pure electrical power but still runs on those lines. Maybe, I can give you two…a boost."

Barry was rubbing his chin in thought. "Maybe…Maybe we can get something together for it, like the treadmill we use at STAR labs."

Cisco nodded as he thought on the same lines. "Channel the electrical blast into it, let you two use it for a running start, can be the boost needed. Tricky thing is getting to line up against Thanos."

"Even if we do grab the Gauntlet, what then?" Oliver asked. "How do we get into the Stone?'

"We've got three people who can shrink," Kara pointed out. "Ray can get very small and this Scott said something about being subatomic."

Tony nodded at that. "Again, it's tricky but.." He rose up and started to the door. "Shiver…"

"It's Vibe," Cisco stated.

"Whatever. You with me in that lab, get the Shuri kid. I've got a brainwave and I want to surf it." They headed out with Barry following. Cap looked to Oliver. "The play has to be getting Thanos in close."

"That's the plan."

Sara sighed. "Len…a guy we used to have…He liked to say there were four stages to every plan: Make the plan. Execute the plan. Expect the plan to go off the rails. Throw away the plan."

Oliver stared at her. "How the hell did he live so long?"

"God knows."

Thor was still looking to Loki. "Can you help?"

His brother sighed. "My influence on this plane is limited. But…" He made a smile Thor knew all too well. "I do have some…ideas."

Despite Thor's smile, Steve and Tony were not very reassured.

* * *

Mick was peering over his weapon, carefully adjusting a wire to it. He felt a presence at his shoulder. "Really not a fan of close quarters."

"Just curious," Rocket said as he looked at the weapon. "You a tech guy?'

"Got this from a partner of mine," Mick said. "Probably the best friend I ever had. First thing he did was make me basically take it apart and put it together to make sure it was in working order. Kept it up."

"Nice friend."

"He was."

"I had one with Groot. He…vanished. He's part of this planet of tree folk."

Mick looked at the raccoon. "Your best friend was a plant?"

"It was his species. He was a…ah, he could be a goof but…the nice kind, ya know?" Rocket sipped his drink. "Me, I had a crappy life as you can no doubt tell. Never really thought about…"

"Letting anyone in," Mick cut in. "Told yourself it was always better to be alone. Friends, who needs 'em? Just be about the score and number one."

Rocket looked at him and smiled softly. "What a pair, huh? Ya know, you and Yondu would have gotten along great."

Mick rummaged through a bag before pulling out another gun. "Here. This was Snart's. I kept it after he died, wanted to find the right partner for it." He tossed it to Rocket. The creature looked it over before aiming it at a nearby chair. He pulled the trigger, unleashing a blast of icy energy that froze the chair solid.

"Wha-ho-ho baby!" he yelped. "This I like!" Mick toasted him with a beer bottle before going back to work.

* * *

Alex was throwing punches at a bag in the gym. Nyssa saw her and studied her. "You're not the type to just stand still."

"Never have been," Alex returned. Her combat jacket was off, just in a dark shirt and pants as she punched the bag. "With half the world gone…It's either break out a bottle or burn off energy and I've been promising Kara to cut down on the drink."

Nyssa was quiet for a long moment until Alex spoke. "How was she when you knew her?"

"I believe she is taken now."

Alex rolled her eyes. "I'm not trying to get back with her. What we had was just a fun night. A…really fun night." She shook her head. "I just…I was coming off a relationship, my first with a woman. We were going to get married but…" She sighed. "I wanted kids and she didn't and…we just couldn't overcome that."

Nyssa was quiet before looking off. "My life was never…a normal one."

"Yeah…Sara told me about your dad." Alex shook her head. "And I thought mine was rough."

Nyssa just kept staring off. "There were times I envied the quiet life Sara had before she came to us. And it hurt to pull her away from that. I saved her life but I also…changed her."

"For the better." Nyssa looked over with surprise as Alex shrugged. "Hey, it's true. We did talk and I talked to a few of her friends, like Oliver. He said she was just a brat in her teen years but you…made her stronger. Better. She wouldn't be a leader without you."

"I made her a killer."

"A soldier. There's a difference, I know. Hey, I was in a bad period too, I had to hit bottom to get back on track. Today…well, I like to think I'm better." She moved back to the bag. "One thing I know about Sara Lance is that she is one damn good woman when the chips are down. And if you helped her pull that off, more power to you."

Nyssa pursed her lips. She then removed her own coat as she headed to a bag and began hitting it with sharp kicks and punches. Alex had to throw her a smirk as she continued her own workout.

Just outside the door, Black Siren stepped away and began to walk down the hallway. "A penny for them," a voice whispered in her ear. Spinning around, Siren threw out a kick only for it to pass right through Loki. He just smirked at her reaction. "I am a ghost now so I do need to live up to the role."

Siren glared at him. "That include peeping tom?"

"Tempting but I am above that pettiness, despite what some might say." Loki was studying her. "I have been learning more about your little squad and you in particular are…interesting."

"Getting a lot of that," Siren muttered as she began walking off.

"As much as I dislike sounding the voice of reason," Loki spoke up. "You should consider giving a second chance to Sara."

Siren whirled on him as Loki shrugged. "Take it from one who has had both a rough relationship with his sibling and a past he's frankly not proud of now…Any chance you have of getting any sort of family back…you should take it."

"You don't know me."

"Believing the only way to being respected was to indulge in your power? To kill? To sink into your dark urges? To just go along with whoever offered you aid just to get ahead and survive?" Loki chuckled. "Little bird, I _was_ you. Which is why I'm telling you that after you're dead…well, it can get a tad lonely so I'd suggest you make time while you can."

He walked through a wall as an exit, leaving Siren to mull over his words.

* * *

Caitlin let out a blast of ice from her hand to test it out. Cisco was looking over a pad in his hands. "It's like before only it's not dark matter but…something else."

"And I'm still me," Caitlin said. Her hair was the same dark color as usual despite the ice in her hands. "It's not like before with Frost as a different persona."

"Maybe it was never the dark matter," Bruce suggested. They looked to him as he sat by a console. "Maybe it sparked it but perhaps this Frost thing was always in you and that was just the catalyst."

As Caitlin frowned Bruce went on. "I've never talked about it much but my dad was…not the best." It was obvious what he meant but Caitlin and Cisco knew better than to press him on it. "I got angry but I just locked it down. When the gamma blast hit me…it was like all that rage was unleashed at once."

"Hmmm," Caitlin mused. "Maybe that's why he's not coming out. You're getting more control, not as angry anymore."

"Yeah but I let him loose and he can be…bad. The Hulk is basically me at my worst."

Caitlin smiled. "We're facing a pair of gods and a Nazi. Right now, your worst may be your best."

Banner had to consider that as Oliver passed by. He saw Clint at a nearby rack, using a tool to sharpen some arrows. Oliver looked it over before moving to put his own at a matching tool. "Any gimmick ones?"

"Electricity, explosive, one with a cable wire," Clint responded.

"Same," Oliver said. "Cisco keeps saying I should get other ones. I made the mistake of saying I managed to fire one with a boxing glove and he suggested it."

"A boxing glove?" Clint laughed. "How the hell did that work?'

"I can't believe it did," Oliver chuckled. He was quiet. "I'm sorry about your wife. And daughter."

"Same for yours." Clint sighed. "Right now, I'm fighting for them. To get them back or to get payback."

"Same," Oliver noted. He held up his arrow, checking it over. "Farthest target?"

"951 feet. Arms dealer in Bogota."

Oliver blinked. "World record on our world is 930 feet."

"Same here," Clint said. "Sadly, it was top secret so couldn't boast about it."

"832 against attacking ninja."

"Not bad. Wind conditions?'

"Clear."

Clint smirked. "30 mile gusts."

Oliver snorted. "I can still beat it."

"Really? Try it, kid."

"Later on, you're on."

"Deal."

They nodded to get back to work.

* * *

Kara fired out her heat vision with Carol twisting to dodge it. She fired a blast of energy with Kara taking it right across the chest, hissing out. "Not too bad?" Carol called out.

"Was it your strongest?"

"No but my strongest once punched a hole in a moon. Still, that would have crippled a Kree battlecruiser."

Kara nodded as the two hovered high over the compound. Carol was looking around. "I saw the damage coming in. Cities with fires around, chaos…God, I don't even know if my mom…"

Kara looked down. "Mine…Alex's really but my foster one…She…"

Carol put a hand to her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

Kara swallowed. "My cousin, Kal…He's like me. He was off planet on a mission so no idea if he was taken or not. I'm just trying to…"

"Do your best and fly high." Carol smiled. "Listen, Kara…I've spent 20 years in space between two species who have hated each other since our civilizations were in the cradle. It puts a lot of stuff in perspective and makes you realize what matters…is being yourself."

"Thanks…Captain." Kara cocked his head. "We've got someone with that name on my world, only a guy."

"Just a nickname. Same for you." Carol nodded at the symbol on her chest.

Kara rolled her eyes. "I always have to say this. It's not an 'S', it's the crest of my family. In English, it translates to hope."

Carol smiled. "And that's what we've got. And if there's one thing the last two decades have taught me…hope really is the best weapon out there."

* * *

The Skull paced the platform carefully. He looked over the inhabitants of the large hanger carefully before speaking in a bold voice. "75 years ago, I followed a man. He was charismatic, he was a visionary and he was undoubtedly insane. But he inspired the HYDRA we know today. A HYDRA that has wasted its potential. That hid when it should have attacked. That slunk in the shadows when it should have roared into the light. Today…the world is at its weakest. A time of chaos that calls to order." He held up a fist. "Our order.

My allies are…unusual, I grant you. But they share a common goal with us in that they have the wish to change their fates. To embark upon their own rules. Together…we shall make our mark." He stopped to face the large crowd of uniformed men and women before him. "Today, this world shall feel our power once more! Today, all our heads shall strike as one! Today…We embrace the destiny that was always meant to be ours!" He lifted the first above his head. "HYDRA shall rule the world! And I am HYDRA!"

The voices came together, a thousand strong as they thrust their fists into the air. " _HAIL HYDRA! HAIL HYDRA! HAIL HYDRA!"_

Nearby, standing by the steps leading to the platform, Hela raised an eyebrow. "The man has a wonderful gift for oratory, you have to give him that."

Malekith just glared at her. Nearby, Jane was wrapped in golden chains while glaring at them both. "I detest working with humans."

"You'll hate it more when Thor comes around," Jane snaps.

Hela smiled. "To think a brother of mine falls for a mortal? It is to laugh." She reached to brush Jane's hair. Jane simply jerked back before spitting at her. Instead of being upset, Hela merely smirked.

The Skull was moving off the platform as he saw several HYDRA commanders there, waiting his orders. One stepped forward, an attractive woman with short red hair. She wore a uniform mixed with crimson colors, her lips in a dark smile as she studied the Skull. "So…Never thought I was going to have this conversation."

The Skull looked her over. "You are?"

She smirked. "Sinthea Schmidt."

He blinked slowly. "Yes," she confirmed his unspoken question. "Your granddaughter."

Schmidt cocked his head to study her. "If you are hoping for a warm family reunion…"

"Nah," she remarked. "I'm betting you don't even remember my grandmother." She looked him over. "But I grew up on the stories. The legends. I heard tell of how you were the baddest of the bad." She smiled. "And I decided I wanted to live up to that legacy."

"Kill count?"

"My first at seven. 189 personally since then. Hard to count the number on that airliner I brought down on a SHIELD heli-carrier."

That brought a smile to the Skull's face. "Welcome aboard…Sin."

She made a salute as the Skull walked toward Hela and Malekith. "Your forces are prepared?"

"Do not treat me as one your subordinates, Skull," Malekith snapped. "We are merely allies by chance."

"Yes," a deep voice came up. "My chance. And my favor."

They turned as Thanos stepped from one of his portals. Jane's eyes widened as she saw the Gauntlet, burned and beaten but still there, on his fist. Behind him, a man in a red suit simply lounged back, absently studying his fingernails. "You each have your goals," Thanos stated. "Skull can have Earth. Malekith his own realm and Hela hers as well." His eyes narrowed. "But never forget, without me, each of you would be dead…or worse. Thus, you help me remove the last obstacles to my peace before you go our own ways."

"Peace?" Jane snorted. "That's why you call universal genocide?"

Thanos glared at her. "I brought balance to this universe that it would otherwise lack."

"Justify it all you want," Jane fired back. "It's still mass murder."

Thanos studied her. "You have a fire and I respect that." He looked to Hela. "Why is she here?"

"It throws Thor off and that can be a help." Hela looked at the large scar on Thanos' chest, which he had to rub reflexively.

"As I said, do this task, destroy these self-professed heroes and you shall each have as you desire." Thanos' fingers clenched. "It's what it takes to finally achieve my peace. And I will have that on top of all else."

Behind them all, the red-suited man just grinned. "Let the revels begin."

* * *

 **Obviously playing guessing on how Carol's origins work in the MCU so if the movie ends up contradicting what I have, sorry.**

 **Had to add a bit more of Loki as he's such a delight to write and even fun insight to others. As you can tell, some setup but that is going to be interesting to see pay off as, just as Doctor Strange put it, "we're in the endgame now."**

 **Next Chapter: The Second Battle of New York.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Infinity Crisis**

 **By Michael Weyer**

 **A quick note of thanks to Marcus S. Lazarus who started a page on TV Tropes for this fic! It's at /Fanfic/InfinityCrisis so feel free to add if you want!**

* * *

The visitors from Earths 1 and 38 had to note how New York City was much like the ones on their world with only a few minor differences. Some areas seemed to be recovering from large construction and not as upscale as their own worlds. Of course, much of the city showed the damage of the mass disappearances with fires dying down but still signs of vehicles crashed and some looting.

Among the additions to this landscape was a large tower marked with a huge "A" on the side. A platform jutted out from a huge area that seemed a combination of lavish penthouse and a fantastic high-tech lab. Leading the way into it was a very attractive woman with reddish hair and the offbeat name of Pepper Potts.

Her reaction upon seeing Tony was to lavish him with hugs, several kisses, a slap on the face and several minutes berating him on being so stupid as to go after an alien spaceship on his own. Tony, meanwhile, had a smile on his face indicating he was more comfortable with this than he'd been in some time.

Amid the various interactions and preparations, one corner of the lab was quiet as a tomb. It was fitting as Gamora's body lay inside a cryogenic holder. Nebula sat before it, staring at the corpse which looked sedate in its place. She heard the footsteps behind her but didn't move even as Black Siren slowly stepped up behind her. Nebula gave her a glare before looking back at the body.

"Your sister, right?"

"She was," Nebula stated.

"Were you…close?"

"We tried to kill each other."

"Well, sisters are like that." Nebula looked over at her. "Oh. You mean…you _literally_ tried to kill each other."

Nebula ignored her. "I thought she was trying to show me up…to curry his favor. It turns out she was trying to protect me…to survive. And I wasted so long hating her…But she went ahead and gave up the Soul Stone's location to save me. She could have let me die but she chose me over billions. I suppose that's love."

"I guess." Siren was quiet for a moment. "My sister and I had our problems. It got worse after our dad died. It just became horrible and we were fighting on the dumbest things. That's probably what drove her to Oliver. When they died, I hated her. God, I hated her so much and it got worse after my…accident."

"You never realized how important she was. Until she was gone."

Siren nodded. "Guess so."

Nebula looked at her. "This…White Canary. She's your sister but from another world?"

Siren looked off. "It's not the same. She's not the same."

"No." Nebula looked back at Gamora's body. "Yet maybe…It's a chance. A chance I would give anything to have again." She flexed a metallic hand. "And I've already given so much."

It was rare for this Laurel Lance to be at a loss for words or feelings. Yet this was a clear time.

* * *

Wally winced as Cisco tightened the harness around him. "You had to make it so heavy?"

"Sorry, no time to spiff it up or make it practical," Tony stated. The lab was tense as Barry and Wally were fitted with the harnesses. Each had a cable about them leading to a large battery device. Black Lightning stood by it at the ready, his hands crackling with electrical arcs. Tony was adjusting some knobs with Cisco helping. "Now, if we can just get the right calibration…"

A loud alarm began blaring throughout the lab. Tony moved to a nearby monitor and within seconds, footage from one of the many drones he had flying over the city was showing the image of a portal appearing. Emerging from it was Thanos, his helmet on and the burned Gauntlet on his hand. "Huh. Okay, less time than we thought."

"Don't worry," Barry said. "We're good with pressed time."

Tony sighed. "Wanted more of a chance to get the kinks out of the way but here goes." He nodded to Lightning who reached his hand toward the battery. He unleashed a blast of electricity into it. "Easy, easy, not too much," Cisco called out.

Lightning nodded as he adjusted the flow. The battery glowed as the wires carried it to the harnesses around Barry and Wally. Each hissed as they felt a rush of energy in them. "Oh yeah…" Wally grinned. "That's doing it!"

Shuri was watching as the portal widened to reveal Hela, Malekith and a horde of elves and frost giants entering the area. Her eyes glanced to another monitor to see a fleet of flying craft moving to the city. One landed on a street to open and disgorge a slew of soldiers in HYDRA uniforms. "We're being invaded!"

"Thanos first," Tony declared. "Get the Gauntlet and get over here with it."

Barry and Wally looked at each other. Taking a deep breath, each took off in a blur of red and yellow. In a second, they were on the street and racing toward Thanos, a blur in motion. With their velocity and speed, it was highly probable that before Thanos could realize it, they would be on him and ripping the Gauntlet off his hand.

On a rooftop, unseen by anyone but clearly there, the red-suited man saw the blur coming. With the tiniest of smiles, he made a motion with his hands. A shimmer opened in the air before Barry and Wally, who were both going far too fast to avoid it. They vanished into it as he swallowed them up.

Shuri blinked at the screen. "That…was not supposed to happen."

Tony clenched his jaw. "This isn't good. Thankfully, I've got a great Plan B."

Cisco stared at him. "There are no great Plan Bs! If they were so great, they'd be Plan A!"

Tony was moving toward the terrace, passing Pepper. She just gave him a nod as he walked on, activating his armor. As the helmet flowed over, he spoke into the comlink. "Cap? Plan B."

* * *

Since the team had arrived in New York, Steve had been keeping them busy. Across the city, the various heroes were going around, helping civilians in need and trying to clear up the damage. They were spread out as Steve got the word from Tony. With a sigh, he activated the main comlink connecting them all. "Folks, some wrinkle with the speedsters. We've got the invasion going down."

"The plan?" Kara spoke up.

"Heavy hitters at Thanos and Hela. Supergirl, you have eyes?"

Above the city, Kara was already using her vision to scan the area. "Frost Giants and elves from the east, Nazi scumbags from the west."

"How many?"

"Um…I'd say a good…thousand…Each."

"Right. You know your spots, hit them hard and fast, take down as many as you can while you keep the civilians safe. Try to keep them from spreading out too much and watch each other's backs." Steve signed off as he looked to Oliver next to him, who was already notching an arrow into his bow. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be." With that, the two moved into action.

* * *

Mick cursed as he smashed his gun into the face of a charging HYDRA agent. He ignited his weapon, a blast of flame cutting loose to drive others back. Next to him, Rocket was firing the cold gun in one hand and one of his machine guns in the other, scurrying about as he took the fight to the enemies. He grinned as he froze one soldier solid, then shot the icy statue to turn it into a plate of cubes. "Dude, I am keeping this!"

Mick smirked as he kept firing heat blasts off. A soldier was about to aim at Mick when the door of the bar literally flew right off its hinges and smashed into him. Everyone paused as a woman staggered onto the street. She was a strikingly attractive woman with black hair, wearing a leather jacket over a tank top and torn jeans.

She took a swig out of the bottle in her hands and sighed. "Ya know, I had a plan today. Saw pretty much everyone I knew turn into dust so crawling into a bottle sounded good. But nope, you assholes just had to come in and ruin it. So now, I'm pissed."

She threw the bottle out to smash into one HYDRA soldier's head so hard, blood was flying out. Reaching over, the woman grabbed a bench and, with a grunt, lifted it right out of its roots in the sidewalk. She spun it around to smash it into another trio of agents. She then punched another to send him flying into a nearby wall.

She looked over at Rocket and blinked. "Huh. I'm drunker than I thought."

"Rocket."

"Jessica. Jones." She looked up at Mick who was just staring at her with an open jaw. "What?'

"You…doing anything later?"

Jessica rolled her eyes as she launched a kick that sent a HYDRA solider flying into a pack of followers. With his grin larger than ever, Mick went back to the fight.

* * *

Clint was firing off arrows from a street as Natasha fired off her own guns. A few feet away, Sara was on the attack, dashing about to smash her staff into a HYDRA agents face while Alex was backing her up. She lifted up her hand and unleashed a blast from her gauntlet that sent an agent flying back. Sara looked over at her and smiled. "You upgraded."

"Present from a friend."

"I like it, looks great."

Nate was in Steel form smashing a fist into a HYDRA soldier. "Girlfriend, Sara."

"Shut up, Nate."

* * *

Thor was racing through the streets, his eyes whirling about. They focused on his target and he charged in, Stormbreaker crackling with energy. Hela was waiting for him with that damnable smirk on her face. Behind her, Jane was bound, her eyes lighting up as she saw Thor charging in. "You never learn, do you?' Hela mocked.

"Oh, I've learned a lot," Thor hissed as the lightning crackled around him. "I've learned what true power is. And why you'll never have it."

Hela just sighed as she dodged his first strike. In a whirl of motion, she had her long sword out in her hand and ready to strike. Thor ignored her, bringing his axe down onto the chains around Jane. She gasped at the electrical shock but happy as she managed to get free of the chains. Thor was spinning to use his axe to block Hela's sword strike. "Why?" he demanded. "Why join that madman?"

"Because he recognizes the truth," Hela smiled. "Death always wins." She smashed her elbow into Thor's jaw and kicked him away. "And he even gave me a gift."

She waved her hand and into the air appeared a globe of energy. Inside was an object Thor knew all too well and his eyes widened. "Mjolnir," he whispered.

"Thanos was good enough to help reconstruct it," Hela explained. "Just as it was before." She smiled as she reached to it. "Let's test which hammer is best." Her hand reached into the globe, breaking the floating spell as she grasped the hammer's handle.

With a gasp, she suddenly felt herself yanked downward as the hammer buried itself into the ground. Hela grunted as she pulled hard but it refused to budge. Thor's face bore a huge grin. "Just as you said…It is as it was before. And it has deemed you unworthy." He lunged forward to slash his axe out with Hela barely able to avoid it.

They moved about, trading blows and shots, Hela wincing at his strikes before slashing Thor across the face. They slammed their weapons together with the lightning flowing about them. Thor was snarling in her face until Hela brought his knee right between his legs. Gasping in pain, Thor fell back and Hela kicked him, knocking him down. "I'll just take that one then," she nodded to Stormbreaker as she hefted her sword. "From your corpse."

Without warning, Jane tackled her, smashing a brick against Hela's head. The goddess was more annoyed than upset by this action. "And the little ant bites back."

Jane smashed the brick again with Hela just smirking. In a blur, she had Jane held up by her throat and grinning. "Bold. Stupid but bold. I'll make sure you get a good place in Valhalla." With that, she plunged her sword right through Jane's midsection.

Thor's howl could be heard across several blocks as he charged forward. Hela was letting Jane drop, a hand to her mid-section as Thor let a berserker rage he'd long left in his youth take hold of him.

* * *

John Constantine would be the first to say he wasn't much for a straight-up fight. He much preferred being sneaky and using his wits and cunning than his fists. But a hard life had made him learn skills before he learned magic and he was using both well. He fired off a ball of fire to hit a Frost Giant before sending a wave of energy to knock another back. Not far off, Quake was unleashing shockwaves of energy at both elves and HYDRA agents while Coulson was firing off his weapon.

Constantine caught Loki's spirit watching with some interest. "Enjoying the show?"

"I am as a matter of fact," the ghost replied. "Interesting seeing an invasion from the other side."

Constantine scoffed. "I'm just here because the Gauntlet plan failed."

"Failed? Oh, no, not failed. Just…taking a turn."

Constantine looked to him. "What aren't you saying?"

Loki smiled. "Get back to the tower. They'll be needing you soon."

"Loki…"

"Being dead broadens your horizons. Which is why I know something is about to happen to shift things about."

"You're not going to tell me what?"

"And ruin the surprise?"

"Asshole."

"I may be dead but I still have a reputation to live up to."

* * *

Amidst the chaos of the battle and explosions rocking across the city, no one noticed the wind picking up in an alleyway. Lost amid the sounds was a loud BOOM that echoed around the walls. What looked to be a tunnel emerged out of nowhere and a quartet of figures stepped out of it. As the tunnel vanished, they looked about, taking in what was happening. Then, sharing quick looks, each broke away to be where they were needed.

* * *

Kara raced forward, her fists raised up to smash into Thanos' chest. The Titan smacked her away as Carol flew in, unleashing a massive blast from her hands. Thanos held up his Gauntlet to deflect the blow, then unleashed a blast from it. It struck Carol, sending her flying back. The roar of engines showed Iron Man and War Machine both flying in, firing off a barrage of missiles. Thanos held his ground against them before unleashing a shockwave that sent both armored figures down.

Thanos shook his head at them. "Why are you doing this? I was willing to let your species live but now…Now, I have to wipe it away. For the good of the universe."

"Rao, that old song?" Kara flew out, unleashing her heat vision at Thanos. "I've heard that crap from Non, Lillian Luthor, Rhea and I've lost count how many more! You all claim you're doing this for everyone else but you never care what they actually want! It's all you, Thanos! The only thing sick in the universe is you!" She flew toward him, still using her heat vision before backing it up with her fists.

Thanos growled as he stood up to her blows. "I brought balance to this universe!"

"Right," Carol sarcastically said as she smashed into him from behind. "I've seen the 'balance' out there. Planets in chaos, wars breaking out, billions more dead in the aftermath, how balanced is that?"

"You're undoing everything the universe is meant for," Kara replied as she punched him again. Tony was rising up to fire a laser beam at Thanos' chest to drive him back more. "And just like any other petty dictator or psychopath, you guss it up in your own reality to defend it."

Thanos smashed his hands together, the shockwave knocking all four of them away. He stomped to Kara, grabbing her by the hair and smashing her face first into the sidewalk. Kara gasped as Thanos held her up. Thanos snarled as he held up his fist. "None of you can see what I have done is for the betterment of the universe! None of you see the truth!" He pulled his fist back…

And something stopped it.

"Actually…I'm a pretty big fan of the truth."

Thanos turned his head to see a figure holding his fist back. His uniform was almost exactly like Kara's complete with the floating cape and the shield at his chest, long pants instead of a skirt and seemed to bristle with power. His face was handsome with dark hair including a spit curl. He seemed calm as he held Thanos' fist in one hand. "And my friends and I?" he continued in a strong voice. "We believe in justice as well."

With that, he smashed his fist into Thanos' face, sending the Titan flying back.

Kara blinked as she slowly stood up. "Kal?" She saw it wasn't quite the same face she knew very well as he gave her a small smile. "Yes but not yours. But if you're wearing our crest…That means you deserve it."

Tony was looking the man over. "This some fashion statement now?"

"Call me Superman."

"Superman, Supergirl, if a freaking super-horse shows up, I'm out of here," Rhodey muttered.

Thanos was snarling as he got up and Superman moved to blast him with another punch. In seconds, Kara and Carol were joining him to take it to the Titan. Thanos gasped as he held up the fist with the Gauntlet. Grabbing it, Superman tugged, gritting his teeth. Thanos was pulling back only for Supergirl and Carol to smash double fists in his face. With one final grunt, Superman pulled the Gauntlet off of Thanos' hand.

The Titan was frozen in disbelief, staring at his now bare hand as if he'd never seen it before. Superman backed up and took off into the air. "Be right back," he called out. Taking advantage, Iron Man leapt in and smashed his own fist into Thanos' jaw, taking clear satisfaction over the pain he was in. Thanos was swinging out with Tony flying back to avoid the blow.

In a blur, Superman was back, once more smashing into Thanos. "Where's the Gauntlet?" Tony demanded.

"Dropped it with a friend," Superman replied. "Right now, let's handle this."

Tony had to agree as the group moved on the weaker but still immensely powerful Titan.

* * *

Shuri was watching the battles on the monitors and cursing. She glanced over to the elevator doors as Constantine walked out, brushing dust off his coat. He took in her, Ray, Banner, Scott and Hope waiting. "Anyone know the plan?"

"There's a plan?" Scott asked.

"There is." The strong voice echoed as everyone turned to see a figure enter the lab. It took a moment to realize he wasn't a robot as almost his entire body was metallic. A red glow was at the center of his chest as the entire metal form seemed to flow and shiver with his movements. Most of his face was covered by the metal, one eye a red glowing orb. But the other half showed a handsome black-skinned face with a warm eye that glimmered with intelligence.

"Name's Vic Stone," he announced to the startled group. "Think you were waiting for this." He placed the Gauntlet down on a waiting holder.

"How?" Ray gasped.

"Who?" Hope pressed.

"We can do the intros later," the man intoned. One of the panels at his leg opened up as he reached to it. He pulled out an object that in moments grew into a large box. "Mini-tesseract holder, new addition," he intoned. He placed the object next to the Gauntlet, letting them see a square with a variety of odd symbols on it. It seemed to glow with energy that got larger near the Gauntlet.

"What the hell…" Shuri whispered, staring at the object in wonder. Given what kind of a culture she came from, a piece of technology creating awe meant something.

"It's called a Mother Box," Vic said. "And it's just what we need." He looked to the others. "Let's get ready to hotwire a cosmic power source."

* * *

Sif smashed her sword into the face of a Frost Giant before slashing an elf down with her sword. Next to her, Valkyrie was attacking with her own sword, a light smile on her face in combat. It wasn't matched by Okoye who was more serious on the attack while Nyssa was moving between her sword and taking a shot with her arrow when she could. The quartet had found themselves taking on the larger wave of creatures as Malekith commanded them on the attack.

Nyssa gasped as she kicked an elf down. "Is there no end to these beasts?"

"They are dedicated to me," Malekith called out as he stood on a car as a platform. "When this is over and I have the power I want…I will be the god Asgard desires.

"You were a petty pest before and you'll die like one," Sif promised.

Malekith snarled as he held up a large piece of weaponry. Sif hissed as she held up her shield, ready to take the strike. Just as Malekith fired, a figure dropped before the group, her hands crossed and somehow seemed to take the blast directly on. Malekith frowned as the energy of the blast faded to show the newcomer.

She was an incredibly beautiful woman with lush dark hair flowing behind her. She wore a suit of armor mostly red around her torso with a blue skirt design, the chest marked by a golden symbol like an eagle while the gold around her waist forged a "W" symbol. At her waist was a lasso that seemed to shimmer in the light. A golden tiara was nestled in her hair and her wrists were enclosed in a pair of solid silver bracelets.

Leaping forward, the woman slammed the bracelets together, creating a shockwave of energy that ripped outward to knock Malekith and his forces back. The woman seemed satisfied as she gazed at the other four.

"Who are you?" Sif demanded.

"Diana of Themyscira," she replied.

Sif knew an immortal warrior when she saw one and nodded to her. "You know what we face?"

"Evil," Diana replied. "That is all I need to know."

Valkyrie looked her outfit over and smiled. "Now that's a nice design. There more where you come from?"

It was a joke but Diana took it seriously. "An entire island in actuality." Valkyrie's eyes bugged out at that.

Okoye was frowning. "This man claims he's on par with a god."

"That's all right." Diana pulled off the shield and sword attached to her back. "He won't be the first god I've killed." She gave the sword a spin. "Shall we?"

Sif and Valkyrie exchanged grins. Okoye and Nyssa shared raised eyebrows. Then all five moved into fighting stances and prepared for the wave of elves and giants coming at them.

* * *

Steve held up his shield, taking the blast of a HYDRA soldier's gun. He was charging as he did so to smash the shield into the man's face. He then threw it out, letting it spin in the air to knock a trio of agents back. As they did, Oliver and Thea were both firing off arrows to cut them down. A burst of electricity from Black Lightning shocked another pair. The group was nearby a half-wrecked office building, having just helped a group of civilians to safety.

Oliver fired an arrow before moving toward Steve. "I'm not seeing the Skull."

"He's here," Steve intoned. "He wouldn't waste the chance to be in control."

The sound of charging footsteps caused them to spin around. They saw another dozen soldiers charging around the corner, weapons already firing. Arrow, Speedy and Lightning dodged the gunfire while Cap held up his shield to deflect the bullets

In a blur, a weapon flew through the air to smash into one of the HYDRA soldiers. Leaping from a balcony was a vision in black. A long cape flowed back, highlighting a man in an outfit that resembled armor, a cowl over his head with pointed ears. As soon as he landed, he was on the move, smashing a fist into one soldier and in the same move, leaping upward to kick another in the face with a boot. He spun about, throwing another weapon which looked like a bat-shaped creature that hit another agent in the face.

Taking advantage, Cap threw out his shield as Oliver let his bow go to work to knock the other HYDRA troops back. The man turned to face them both, letting them see a grizzled but still strong figure under the mask with the symbol of a winged creature across his chest. "Another squad coming up from down the street, heading toward that cafe. Better get to the civilians inside." With that, he held up a grappling device and fired it off. As soon as the cable was attached to a nearby pole, he took off with it, his cape sweeping behind him.

Oliver stared up at where the caped figure had vanished. He then looked over to Steve. "He with you?"

Cap frowned at him. "I figured he was with you."

* * *

Thor wasn't thinking at all, consumed with nothing but rage as he attacked Hela. She put up with his shots, knowing his sloppiness was to her advantage. Sure enough, Thor overcommitted to a charge and she was able to grab his arm and pull him off-balance. She smashed her knife at his chest, a glancing blow but enough to hurt. She then smashed him with a kick to the gut before bringing the butt of the knife against his head. Thor gasped as he fell to his knees before the Goddess of Death.

Nearby, ignored by both, a mortal woman was fighting for her life. Jane hissed in agony, holding her belly as she crawled about, every move bringing new pain to her. She could feel her blood flowing out onto her hand and her body weakening. Her hand stretched out, the fingers clenching for air, for support, for something to help her. They touched something, something metallic and felt her fingers clutch around it.

" _Whosoever holds this hammer_ …"

And she pulled on it.

" _If they be worthy_ …."

Hela smirked as she held her blade to Thor's throat. "I know, I promised the eyes. Ah, well, it makes decorating my throne room with your head all the better." She held the blade back…

 **KAKRAAAAAOOOOOOOOMMMM**

A blast of lightning ripped out of the clear sky to strike behind them both. The shockwave knocked Hela away as she spun around. She saw the lightning flowing downward and seeming to form itself around a figure. The light seemed to flash around her as metal and cloth flowed about her person.

Hela's smirk had vanished, replaced by a look of utter disbelief. "Impossible," she whispered. She was about to step forward when Mjolnir flew from the light and smashed right into her face. Hela gasped as she fell backward, clutching at her now broken nose.

The hammer flew back to be easily caught by the strong figure now showing as the lightning faded. The metallic top covered her chest and fit over single darker suit that covered her over including her legs. Around her waist was a dark brown and golden skirt that flowed around behind her, hooked to a large belt. A red cape flowed behind her, billowing in the wind. Her arms were covered in dark guards that flowed from her gloves to her upper forearms. A helmet covered her scalp with a metallic mask over her eyes. Her hair was brighter as it whipped around her along with the cape. Behind the mask, her eyes were reflected in the electricity coming off her hammer.

In nearly two thousand years of life, Thor had never seen a more beautiful sight.

Jane Foster, Goddess of Thunder, narrowed her eyes at the dark-garbed woman trying to put her nose back together. "I would have words with you…bitch."

* * *

Hawkeye fired an arrow off to cause an explosion at a Frost Giant. Vibe was nearby firing off his energy blasts while Caitlin was in full Killer Frost mood, her ice blades cutting an elf down. Natasha smashed her batons against a HYDRA soldier and grimaced. "We need more backup!"

"Not like we've got a lot to call on," Alex snapped as she unleashed another blast from her gauntlet while Sara threw a knife to cut down a trooper. "Cisco, can't you try and…vibe…for help?"

"Gee, that might have been a good idea _before the_ _big battle_!"

Alex's retort was lost as a familiar crackling sound came through the air. A breach opened as twin streaks of red and yellow flew outward. In an instant, the HYDRA agents were down and the Giants were strewn about. "About time!" Vibe yelled. "Honestly, super-speedsters and they're late."

"Sorry," Barry said. "We sort of…had a delay."

Caitlin frowned. "What kind?"

"Well…You know how I said one time Jay told me the Speed Force could be an afterlife for speedsters? Turns out he meant that literally."

"And," Wally added. "With the energy we've got…Well, let's just say we thought it was best to get what help we could."

Another blur flew out from that portal as a figure raced out. One surviving Frost Giant was rising up when the figure slammed into him hard. A blur of blue and white flowed around to smash into him before sending it flying through a store window.

The blur stopped in front of Hawkeye and Black Widow, letting everyone see him clearly. He was a young man with white hair clad in a nearly solid blue shirt with darker pants, waves of blue afterimages still following him. He had a smirk on his face as he spoke up in an accented voice to address the open-jawed Clint and Natasha.

"You did not see that coming?"

* * *

 **Okay, this ended up longer than expected so has to divide it up a bit more. Yep, the big-screen Justice League joining the fun. And yes, the idea of Thor Jane was in my mind for quite a bit while the bit of Quicksilver coming back just hit me. Expect more of the fight and the big plan coming together next chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Infinity Crisis**

 **By Michael Weyer**

* * *

 **Earth 51, 48 Hours Ago**

Superman dodged the massive blow of Solomon Grundy before smashing his fist into the man's face. He felt a blur behind him before seeing Captain Cold and Mirror Master both sent out flying. In the corner of his eye, he could see Diana wrapping up Cheetah in her lasso. Grabbing Grundy by the front of his suit, Superman hurled him into a corner, letting the creature smash through the wall of the self-proclaimed "Hall of Doom."

With Grundy out of the way, Superman set his sights on the figure in armor before him. The light shining off his bald head, Lex Luthor hissed as he held up his palm. A blast of green energy flew out but Superman was able to dodge it. The beam flew out across the hall where Green Lantern and Sinestro were clashing with their own beams of light. Superman raced out to grab Luthor, his first crushing a section of his main chest plate. Luthor gasped as he felt the lead lining crush around the kryptonite power source and thus prevent him from firing again.

"All this effort, Lex," Superman said with a touch of sadness. "And it's for nothing."

Luthor snarled at him. "I'm not stopping. You know I won't. If it keeps you from rising up like a god over us…"

Superman let out a tired sigh. "I'm no god, Lex. Not all of us want to rule the world."

"Only because some of us already do."

Superman was about to reply when a loud gasp echoed in his ears. Turning, he saw Diana staring at the sight of Cheetah suddenly transforming, the cat-woman letting out a shriek of her own as her body turned to dust. The lasso closed around thin air as Diana stared.

Green Lantern and Sinestro, long enemies, were now united in staring at each other in disbelief as each turned to dust and vanished. In unison, the green and yellow rings flew out, each letting out a message. _"Ring bearer for Section 2814 deceased. Seeking replacement."_

"Len?" Mirror Master gasped as he watched his partner turn to dust. He wasn't long behind as with the rest of the Rogues, save an utterly baffled Captain Boomerang. Grundy also vanished. Superman stared in shock before turning, his face tight. "What have you done, Luthor?!"

Luthor's face was white as he looked around. "This…this isn't me. I don't…" He looked down to see that same darkness start to wash over him. "No….no, not like this, not-" The rest was lost as he turned to dust in Superman's hands.

He stared at his palms in disbelief as he turned around. Barry was racing to him but in mid-step, that same wave covered him over and in seconds, the Flash was a cloud of dust flying in the air.

Superman and Wonder Woman exchanged long, stunned stares at each other as they realized they were the only ones left. The door to the chamber burst open as Batman entered. "Deathstroke just vanished in front of me," he grunted. "What is…" He stopped as he took in the sight of the duo along with piles of dust around the room. Boomerang, for once, wasn't taking advantage to leave but just staring in disbelief at the sight. "What happened?"

"They're…gone…" Diana whispered.

Superman stared, cocking his head. "I can hear…." His eyes widened. "Lois." In a blur, he was out the window as Batman looked around and for a very rare time, felt utter fear clutch at his chest.

* * *

Wayne Manor was more silent than usual as the quartet gathered. Superman was showing the fatigue of having spent nearly the last day rushing across the planet, trying to help wherever he could. Diana wasn't far behind him, sitting down to rub at her temples. Batman was silent, gazing at the data flowing around the holographic table before them. "50 percent," he intoned. "According to this, in the initial wave, exactly 50 percent of the population vanished."

Cyborg was watching the data flow in his own special hologram. "No sign of any cause from Earth or space."

"The way it happened…" Diana shivered. "That is cosmic power. It hit everywhere at once." She was aware of how she was the only one of the trio who didn't lose someone quite close to them but still felt the pain of what happened.

"We need to know more," Superman said, trying to keep calm even with the loss of Lois. "But we've lost a lot of sources. If we haven't heard back from Arthur yet…" He let the rest of it fade.

Diana tapped her fingers and took a breath. "There is someone but…you won't like it."

Batman looked at her and shook his head. "No."

"Bruce, I know you have issues…"

"I don't trust him."

"Neither do I but we need him."

" _You are correct, Princess. You do_."

The team turned to see a figure flow out of nowhere to appear before them. He was in a mostly blue suit with a golden cape flowing behind him and a large golden belt with a medallion at his neck. His entire head was covered by a huge golden helmet that seemed to shimmer with power.

"Fate," Batman snarled.

" _Dark Knight_ ," the man stated, his voice with an echo. " _I shall be brief as time is of the essence. The threat to this world comes from another. A world where a mad alien used a gauntlet of great power to wipe out half the universe. And others…."_

It took fifteen minutes for him to get the full explanation and the Leaguers to accept it. "How do we get there?" Superman demanded.

Fate waved a hand as a set of bizarre equations flowed over the screen. Cyborg automatically took them in, recording them to his database. " _These should allow you to breach the barriers and_ _reach that Earth_ ," Fate intoned. " _The defenders they have shall be your allies."_

"Will you join us?" Diana asked.

Fate shook his head. " _I am needed elsewhere. The chaos across the universe is barely enough to be contained. This is to be your battle. Good luck."_ With that, his cape wrapped around him and seemed to implode inward to allow him to vanish.

Bruce shook his head. "I hate magic."

"Right now, we've got bigger problems." Superman looked at the screen. "Vic, figure a way to get us to this world. We have a universe to save."

* * *

 **Earth 199999**

 **Now**

Diana ducked a blow from a giant and slashed her sword into his gut. She leaned forward, letting Sif lean back against her to avoid a slash from an elf. Diana flexed back so Sif could attack and cut the force down. The two saw Nyssa running forward and moved to put their shields together. Leaping up, Nyssa stood onto the shields as the other two women pushed it up, sending her flying. In mid-air, Nyssa fired a trio of arrows from her bow to cut down a trio of elves.

Okoye smashed her spear into an elf's face as Valkyrie cut down a giant with her sword. The latter had a grin on her face indicating she was having the time of her life. Okoye couldn't help but smirk back as she smashed her weapon into the face of an elf.

Diana moved as she saw Malekith charge into the fray with a huge sword in his hand. In a blur, she pulled out a lasso, the rope glowing as she spun it around his wrist. He pulled back on her but Diana was the stronger, yanking the elf off his feet. Her fist smashed into his face as he was knocked back. "I give you one chance," Diana declared. "Stand down or die."

"Never," he snarled, kicking back at her and freeing his sword hand.

Diana gave a mild shrug as she pulled her sword back out. "As you wish." They clashed together as the other four women added more elves and giants to the rather sizeable pile of corpses littering the street.

* * *

Oliver was moving around the building with Speedy, each firing off arrows. Quake had joined them, unleashing her blasts to knock some troops back. Batman (as he was calling himself) had once more appeared to help rescue a pack of people trapped in a café. "Where you from?" Speedy called out as she fired an arrow off.

"Gotham," the man grunted back.

"That figures," Thea muttered. "I always knew that town was nuts."

Batman hurled one of his boomerang-like objects, letting it fly through the air to smash into a HYDRA soldier. A blur hit as Flash ran over, taking down a pack in seconds. He looked to Batman, a bit thrown at how the man was studying him. "Um…I know you?"

Batman just shook his head. "Not quite. What's the situation?"

"We're still holding our own but no word from Stark Labs."

"Cyborg will be able to help," Batman said. "We're better off here." He pointed a finger at Barry. "Allen, get to the east side…"

"How'd you know my name?"

Batman went on. "Take Speedy here, get to the rooftops, start checking out the situation for stragglers."

Flash looked to Oliver, who gave a nod. He moved to Thea, who took a deep breath. "Oh, I'm hoping John was just exageraaaaaaaaaaaa-" The rest was lost in a blur.

Batman turned around, speaking. "Arrow, you get…" He stopped as he saw that Oliver had already gone. Batman stared at the empty space then grunted. "Huh. So that's what that feels like…"

* * *

The blue blur echoed about as Quicksilver ran back and forth, fists smashing into HYDRA troops and elves alike. He paused now and then to get an odd civilian out of the way before going back to his running. Hawkeye and Widow were still just staring at him as Sara moved in to smash a HYDRA soldier back. "What's with you two?"

"He was dead," Hawkeye said. "Died in my arms. That doesn't freak you out?"

"I was dead," Sara returned which got her a pair of jarred looks. "Trust me, coming back isn't as shocking a deal as you think." She smashed her staff into a man's face before throwing out a dagger that cut another down.

"Damn," Clint muttered to Natasha. "She train like you?"

"I have to find a way to look up this League," Natasha remarked. "They could use some pointers."

Sara was moving back to them. "It's not exactly a country club. Although they do have a very good spa area…"

Before either could reply, a burst of gunfire sent them all scrambling for cover. Sin was racing toward them, a machine gun in her hand and a sadistic grin on her face. She fired off a grenade, all three scattering before it exploded with a shockwave of blue energy that sent them flying.

Sara landed on her back, grunting as she tried to recover. She saw Sin coming toward her, harnessing her gun to pull out a pair of knives. "Guns are good but I prefer hands-on," she giggled. Sara grunted as she tried to move but Sin was faster than she seemed and ready to leap at her.

"Hey!" Sin stopped and spun around to see a woman in black leather glaring at her. "Get the _hell_ away from my sister!" She unleashed a loud cry that echoed out, sending Sin flying off her feet. She landed hard on a pile of concrete, groaning as she held her back.

Sara looked up as Siren stood before her and extended a hand. She took it as Laurel pulled her up and then into a hug. After a moment, Sara returned it as Siren held her tight. "I'm sorry," she whispered in Sara's ear. "I am so, so sorry…"

Sara held her back. "I know…but right now, we need to focus." Siren nodded as she broke off, wiping at her eyes. She turned to see Sin slowly getting up, wincing but glaring as he held up her knives. Sara glanced to Siren. "On your world, did we still get to Stephanie Mendes' party?"

Siren grinned back and Sara returned it. Together, the two moved in, launching a series of kicks and punches, each ably avoiding Sin's own strikes to fight together.

Clint looked to Nat. "Should we help?'

She paused and shook her head. "No. I think this is a sisterly bonding activity." She moved down the street. Taking one last look at the Lances in battle, Clint shrugged and followed her.

* * *

Near the top of a large skyscraper, a horde of HYDRA troops were standing at attention. Before them, their leader stood, gazing downward at the chaos of battle. Despite the defense of the "heroes," he was confident and showed it with his hands clasped behind his back, his uniform strong in the light. The room had been the headquarters of the New York branch of the FBI, now deserted. Various items were strewn about with a pole bearing the American flag leaning on a chair near the corner.

The Skull took in the sight of the city and smiled. "This…this is just what I need. This city will fall first and become our center. We shall use it to extend our reach outward. To gain more followers. To sway those looking for guidance and something to believe in." He gazed outward and put a hand to his chest. "We shall remake this country into a better America. My America."

At that instant, the window shattered inward as a disc-shaped object flew in, knocking the Skull back. Captain America stood in the frame, his face tight. "Skull…don't you _dare_ salute that flag!"

He leapt in, rushing to meet the oncoming HYDRA soldiers. He easily picked the shield up to deflect a horde of bullets fired at him. From the window, Coulson pulled himself into the room, firing his gun off at the other soldiers. Steve stalked toward the Skull. "You're getting out of here in handcuffs or on a gurney, Skull. Your choice."

The Skull snarled as he unleashed a blast of energy from his gauntlet. Steve deflected it with his shield as the Skull started moving forward. They traded punches and blows as the Skull grunted. "It's over, Rogers. Our long conflict ends today. I understand you now, your 'American dream.' To do whatever it takes to rule. To maintain control with fear, to provide order, to ensure the ruling class stays in power. I understand it!"

Steve smashed a fist into his face. "You understand nothing, Skull. You never did. America isn't about the government, it never was and never is. It's the people. And despite how divided they may seem, how much they fight…in the end they all share a dream that you could never grasp."

The Skull sneered as he caught Steve's fist. "I understand much, Rogers…such as your weakness." He pulled up his gun but not at Steve. Instead, he aimed it at Coulson, who had his back turned as he was punching down a soldier. Instinctively, Steve let out a yell and Coulson turned to see it. He hit his wrist, activating a device on his gauntlet. Instantly, a glowing shield came before him, held up in time to catch the glowing burst of energy the Skull fired at him. It hit the shield, absorbed but the impact still driving Coulson to sail off and into a nearby wall.

Steve grabbed at the Skull to punch him in the face. Knocked into a desk, the Skull grabbed at the various sheets on it and tossed them out as a distraction. Reaching to his boot, he pulled out a sharp knife and lunged at Steve. Steve barely avoided it as the Skull smashed an elbow into his jaw, stunning him. He managed to throw Steve back, his enhanced strength working to send him down against the desk.

The Skull hurled the knife, Steve just managing to avoid it hitting his heart. He hissed as it pierced his upper shoulder, pinned right to the wall behind him. Grinning, the Skull pulled another knife out as he stalked forward. Before he could get far, a sound came from behind. Turning, the Skull saw Black Lightning standing in the doorway. "Oh, look. You have a new pet, Rogers."

Lightning was silent as he slowly stepped into the room, his face impassive. "You're alone? How foolish but then your race isn't known for their intellect." The Skull smirked. "I'm going to crush you, animal. I am going to destroy all you know. You and your race of mongrels will be our slaves before we finally put you out of the misery of this planet. You will not even be a memory." He smirked. "Nothing to say to that, animal?"

"Yeah."

Black Lightning pulled off his gloves and cracked his knuckles.

"I'm gonna break your goddamn jaw."

He raced in as the Skull backed up. "Those hands…" he hissed. "You will not touch me with those filthy hands!"

"Fine." Lightning let out a blast of electricity that hit the Skull dead on. He gasped as he fell backward, not far from Steve. Cap lunged out with a kick against the Skull's face as he rolled with it. Lighting was on him, his fists smashing into the Skull's gut, his chest, his back and his face. Each one sparked with a burst of electricity, the Skull gasping in agony as he felt the blows rip into him. "Master race," Lightning snarled. "White power. Aryan superiority. Doesn't matter what Earth it is or who's saying it, it's the same old crap by a bunch of assholes scared of being seen as anything but the best." He kicked the Skull between the legs and smashed another blow into his jaw. "We don't want to wipe white folks out. We don't want to rule things, we just wanna be treated like everyone else. But scum like you can't let that be, huh?"

The Skull tried to punch back only for Lightning to smash him with a blast of electricity that sent him to his knees. "Tell me, Skull...Of the two of us, who looks the weaker race right now?"

The Skull lifted up his hand to fire off his Dust of Death. Instinctively, Lightning leapt back to avoid it. It was enough for the Skull to charge at him, tackling him and punching him in the jaw. "You should have laid down and died, animal," the Skull snarled. "But your kind never listen."

A whirling sound cut through the air as that famous shield smashed into the Skull's back. He gasped as he turned to see Cap standing there, the knife still sticking out of his shoulder but ready to move. Taking advantage, Lightning swung his fist out, the hand glowing brightly with electricity. It hit the Skull in the chin, a loud cracking sound filling the room. The Skull clutched at it as Lightning saw Coulson joining Cap, his own photon shield standing.

Struck with inspiration, Jefferson Pierce fired a blast of lightning at the two men. As he'd hoped, they both lifted their shields on instinct to deflect the bolt right back at the Skull. He howled in agony and shook hard as the lightning channeled by the vibranium and photonic elements crackled through him. Steve hefted his shield, the disc crackling at the edges with electricity. With a heave, he sent it flying out to smash into the Skull's face. He fell backward, stumbling toward the corner, falling back….

And landing right on the flagpole jutting upward.

The Skull gasped in agony, frozen in place. He slowly looked downward, staring in utter disbelief at the sight of Old Glory skewered right through his chest. Cap moved to look down at him and shook his head. "I gave you a chance, Skull. But your kind never listen."

"R…Ro….gers…" the Skull managed to spit out through a broken jaw, pouring as much hate and venom into a single word as he could. He slumped at last, his eyes staring out at nothing.

Coulson just sniffed at the body. "Give my regards to the Fuhrer."

Lightning looked at the body with the flag jutting out and couldn't resist throwing a smirk at Cap. "God bless America."

* * *

With a howl, Jane unleashed a bolt of lightning from her hammer. Hela just managed to avoid it only for another from Thor to strike her and knock her back.

Jane looked at Thor, her eyes wide in wonder. "Is this…what it feels like for you?" As he nodded, she grinned. "I most like it!" She frowned. "All right…My speech has become a bit odd…"

Hela snarled, her nose still showing signs of the breaking as she hurled out a handful of daggers. Jane spun her hammer around to block every one of them and then stared at it in wonder. Thor was lunging forward to slash at Hela, who dodged the blow. But that left her open for another shot from Mjolnir to crash into her temple and knock her back. Jane caught the hammer as she leapt forward to smash it into Hela's jaw.

Hela glared and just shook her head. "You can't beat me. I am the Goddess of Death. I am eternal."

"Fine," Jane said, her hammer now glowing in the light. "Then you can enjoy the rest eternal." Thor joined her as Stormbreaker also glowed brightly. They held their weapons up and then slammed them together. Hela's eyes widened as she saw the joined lightning erupting down from the sky and into the hammers. She opened her mouth too late as the combined lightning ripped into her. She screamed out, her skeleton illuminated by the twin blasts.

With a joined cry, Thor and Jane leapt forward, their weapons held up. Stormbreaker hit from one side as Mjolnir slammed from the other. The result was a massive eruption of light and darkness as Hela basically exploded from the double blasts of Asgardian magic and dwarven metal in a spectacular burst of energy.

As it faded, all that remained of Hela were a few pieces of cloth. Jane looked to Thor. "Is she truly gone?"

Thor sighed. "Difficult to say with her. Suffice to say, it will be a long while before she could return from that."

Jane nodded as she held the hammer up. "Ah…Do you…?" She held it before him.

Thor looked down at the weapon that had been his for so many centuries…and shook his head. "No. It chose you, Jane. It declared you worthy. I cannot deny that." He looked her in the eye. "And I cannot deny you."

She stared back at him. Then they embraced into a long kiss in the street which charged the air all around them.

A whistling sound came through the air as a blue-garbed figure suddenly smashed into both of them. Jane gasped, dropping the hammer as they flew about. They saw Supergirl wincing as she got back to her feet, rubbing her back. "Sorry," she said. "Thanos is still a handful."

"Then we're joining you," Thor declared, hefting Stormbreaker. "I still owe him."

Kara nodded as she took in Jane. "Wait…Are you…" She shook her head. "Nope, not even asking anymore." She paused to reach down and pick up Mjolnir as if it was nothing. "Oh, here, guess this is yours." She put it into Jane's hand then took off flying, completely missing the utterly stunned looks Jane and Thor gave each other.

* * *

Alex let out a blast from her gauntlet as she backed into a street. Quake was nearby, unleashing her own shockwaves. "That the suit or you?" Alex called out.

"All me," Daisy explained. "Guess you don't have Inhumans on your world?"

"Depends on how you classify them," Alex said as she fired another blast off. She saw Mick and Rocket double-teaming some HYDRA agents accompanied by an attractive leather-clad woman. "New friend?"

The woman just shrugged. "Jessica Jones, PI."

"Welcome aboard." Despite the situation, Alex had to let her eyes skim over Jessica. Mick glared at her. "I saw her first!" Jessica just shook her head and wished she had a bottle.

Alex was drawing a bead on an elf when something whistled through the air as what looked like a baton smashed into the creature. A man leapt down from a rooftop, clad in a dark red costume with a helmet containing a pair of horn heads. He kicked the elf back as he stood up.

Jessica stared at him in disbelief. "Matt?" She stalked forward and gave him a punch in the gut that had him bent over. "You _asshole_!"

The man called Matt gasped out as Jessica shook her head. "We all thought you were dead! Couldn't even hold a funeral!"

He grunted as he rubbed at his gut. "It's…complicated…" He stopped as his nose twitched. "Have you been drinking?"

"Don't change the subject!"

"Hey!" They both turned to see Alex waving about. "Invasion!"

Matt looked to Jessica. "Danny and Luke?" At her head shake, he let out a sigh. "Fine. But in the field, I'm Daredevil."

"I am not calling you that."

"Yeah, that is a stupid name," Mick replied. Rocket nodded in agreement and even Alex had to shrug. Shaking his head, Daredevil went on the attack as Quake sent a pair of HYDRA agents flying into a wall.

* * *

The Mother Box glowed brightly as Cyborg adjusted the wires leading from it into the Gauntlet. "This should open up a passage into the Stone," he said. He gave a shrug. "Of course, it's all theoretical, no idea if it'll work or not."

"That makes it fun." Shuri was studying his armor. "What is this? The metal is one thing but the mixture of circuitry and flesh…It's amazing how it all works. Does it adapt more and grow? And how does the biology…"

Cyborg rolled his good eye. "You and my dad would get along great."

Ray was in full armor just as he glanced about. "Anyone know where Constantine went?"

"Probably best not to ask." Scott had his helmet on. "Okay, we'll take the lead but you can follow. Be careful, getting that small is a lot riskier than it sounds."

Ray nodded. In a blur, he, Scott and Hope all shrunk down to almost nothing. Cyborg's eye was able to zero in on them. "On 3…2…1…now!" His right hand had several wires flowing into the Mother Box which let out a bright flash of light. In an instant, a tunnel too small for the naked eye to see flowed from the Box and into the Soul Stone. Cyborg's eye tracked the trio as they entered the tunnel and flew into the Stone.

Shuri was examining the readouts. "It looks like they're in it…Now what?"

"You pray in your culture?"

"We do."

"I used to be an atheist. But right now, I'm open to anything."

* * *

Nebula started as she saw Constantine enter, stubbing a cigarette out on a table. "What do you want?" she snarled.

"Your help." The man knelt down, pulling a pouch out of his coat. He dipped a finger into it to rub a large red circle onto the floor. Nebula cocked her head as she saw him make odd markings within it. "What are you doing?"

"Something crazy and wild as I'm wont to do," he intoned. He smirked. "Trick is, it's not just for me. Let's just say it's time to balance some scales in my own ledger."

Nebula had no idea what this bizarre man was saying…yet somehow was intrigued.

* * *

Bruce looked at himself in the mirror of the bathroom, taking a breath. "Okay," he said into his reflection. "I know we've had…issues over the years. I know I've treated you like a burden and something I've wanted to destroy but…" He sighed. "I was fooling myself. You…You're part of me. You always have been. You always will be. I know you. And that's how I know what's happening.

You got scared. You finally fought someone strong as you, someone who could beat you, someone who hurt you. That's never happened and you got scared of it. Well guess what, that happens. Fear is part of life to anyone, even you. Right now, the guy who did it is out there and we're needed. So it's time you and me stopped fighting each other and fought together. It's time we prove who's the strongest there is. What do you say?"

There was a silence…and then Bruce watched as his eyes turned green and his head slowly nodded.

* * *

Tony unleashed a laser blast at Thanos, who blocked it with one hand. That left him open for Superman to unleash his own heat vision to burn at his chest. Dual lightning crackled as Thor and Jane showed up and behind his helmet, Tony had to stare in disbelief at Jane. "Are they just handing out powers now?"

Jane hurled her hammer out, letting it crash into Thanos' face. Superman was about to fly in when his ears perked and his head craned upward. A loud booming sound filled the skies as everyone glanced up to see a large alien craft emerge from the skies.

Thanos' face once more showed his smug smile. "Did you honestly think I wouldn't make sure I had backup?"

A slew of small craft the Avengers knew all too well came down from the main ship. "The Chitauri," Tony whispered.

"I had thought I could disband my armies once my task was complete," Thanos stated. "But it seems I still had need of them." He sighed. "Some people just can't accept progress."

Superman was staring beyond the main ship. "With another dozen ships coming in." He glanced over at Supergirl, then to Carol who both gave nods. Superman looked back to Iron Man. "You try to keep Thanos contained." He looked up at the sky. "We'll handle the armada." He, Kara and Carol all took off flying, Carol letting a helmet form over her head.

Rhodey looked to Tony. "Them?"

"Right now, we've got bigger problems," Tony noted, firing a blast at Thanos as Thor lunged in to exchange blows with the Titan. A blue blur echoed as Quicksilver dashed in to land a dozen blows in a second before moving on toward the alien forces.

"Was that…" Rhodey started.

"I don't know, I don't care," Tony replied.

"No, seriously, I think that…"

"I don't _want_ to know, I don't _want_ to care."

* * *

"Aliens," Cisco was groaning as he fired a blast. "Because I was just standing here, thinking 'you know what we need right now? An alien invasion, that's what we need!'"

Caitlin was too busy firing a blast to freeze one alien. She caught the blurs of Wally and Quicksilver running about to take more down as others of the armored forces went on the attack.

"Aim for the heads!" Clint called out as he fired an arrow while Widow was firing off her guns.

"Could use backup!" Vibe called out.

Right on cue, a loud roar echoed across the street. Clint and Natasha both perked up with grins. "Oh, do I know that sound," Natasha said.

From a rooftop, the Hulk leapt downward, crushing a pair of Chitauri under his feet. He grabbed another to smash him into the ground, then tossed him into another pack. "Welcome back, big guy!" Clint called out.

The Hulk looked down and smiled at them. "Good to be back," he said in his deep booming voice which oddly sounded warmer than usual. He nodded to Frost. "Nice to meet you at last." He saw a large alien craft move in and started to bound toward it. "Can't chat, time to smash!" He leapt up to attack it and bring it down.

Clint stared at Natasha in utter disbelief. "Since when does he actually carry on a conversation?!"

"That's…a new one," she had to agree.

Vibe slowly looked to Caitlin. "And I thought your roommate was rough." She had to nod at that.

* * *

Ray was used to getting himself small but this was something else. He could feel the vibe of a near subatomic dimension flowing over his armor and glad he'd fitted on a larger face mask. He let Ant-Man and Wasp take the lead, Scott hanging onto a cable attached to Hope's waist as her wings carried them on. The tunnel stretched before them in what looked like miles although Ray knew it was just a few feet. Before them, a bright light grew larger and larger and he swallowed. "Is this the light at the end of the tunnel a good one or like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride?"

"Got enough of a wild ride as it is," Scott noted. "Hang on!" Taking a breath, Ray increased his jet boot's power to follow them, the light swallowing them up…

And in a burst, they found themselves flying over what looked like a lush forest with a huge river flowing into a waterfall and lake. Ray stared in wonder at it all as well as the slews of people walking about or standing, all of whom were taking notice of the newcomers. Before them, floating in the air, was a man in a dark blue suit with a red cape flowing behind them. He appeared quite calm yet a rather dry air in the way he raised an eyebrow.

"It's about damn time," Dr. Stephen Strange stated. "I was expecting someone a day ago."

* * *

 **So kicking into the true endgame here, hope you enjoy it so far. For those who don't know, Fate is long-time DC magical character Doctor Fate. Again, this fic has its own TV Tropes page if you want to check it out and hope you stick around for the long haul.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Infinity Crisis**

 **By Michael Weyer**

* * *

Sara and Siren each dodged the blows Sin was trying at them. The snarling redhead was clearly relying more on her madness than her skills but was outmatched by the duo. She lunged forward as Sara dodged a blow only for Siren to smash her with a kick.

Sin shook her head as she rose to her feet. "I've been killing people since I could walk. My grandfather was the baddest guy HYDRA has ever known. What the hell makes you think you two can beat me?"

"We're Lances," Laurel replied.

"And nobody beats our temper," Sara added.

Sin attacked, slashing at both with her knives. Sara managed to dodge and block the knives with her staff. She twisted about and pulled Sin off balance, knocking her near the edge of the bridge they were fighting on. Siren unleashed a cry that knocked Sin off it sending her plummeting with a scream over the edge.

Laurel moved to Sara and smiled. "That felt damn good."

Sara smiled back as they both headed off. Neither could see the red suited man on a rooftop smiling at how neither had looked over to see no sign of Sin's body.

* * *

Diana smashed her shield into the face of Malekith, sending the dark elf flying back. Behind her, Okoye, Nyssa, Sif and Valkyrie were dealing with the last of his main forces. Snarling, the elf lashed out with his sword as Diana blocked it. She spun it around as she kicked out to knock Malekith back. The elf swore as he lunged at her with a glowing blade from his back. Diana suddenly dropped her sword to grab her lasso. In a second, she had it wrapped around the charging Malekith and yanked hard, sending him flying over her head. Malekith yelled out as he saw Sif and Valkyrie looking up at him with matching smiles. In perfect unison, they swung their swords out together.

Malekith's body landed on the street. A moment later, his legs followed. Then his head went bouncing along before finally ending up, appropriately, in a gutter.

Diana let out a satisfied smile to the other ladies. "Looks like we've got enough to keep us busy."

"Good," Valkyrie grinned. "I was getting bored." The group began racing to where they saw several of the other heroes gathering. Batman was there, Diana knowing it must be killing him to be out in the open like this.

Diana stepped before them, nodding to Batman. "Heard from Victor?"

"Not yet."

Diana nodded, not seeming to notice the way several figures were just staring at her with a few open jaws. Frost rolled her eyes. "Men."

Laurel gave her an elbow nudge. "Wanna bet?" She nodded to where Sara and Alex were gazing at Diana with the same open-jawed wonder.

Captain America just gave Diana a quick nod before speaking. "We need to spread it out, take the fight to them and start pressing them inward. Buy as much time as we can for the others to do their work."

"Where's Kara?" Barry asked as he looked around.

Cap just looked up. "She's busy."

* * *

Above Earth, Superman flew outward, smashing right through one of the massive whale-like creatures that had been flowing down toward Earth. Behind him, Kara was using her heat vision to fire the engines of one of the main ships. Sweeping between them, Carol brought her hands together to unleash a blast of energy that smashed through one of the other vessels. She kept right on flying to crash into it and moments later, it was torn in half. Unable to speak in space, Kara settled for a thumbs up which Carol returned as Kal tore another ship apart.

* * *

Thanos was shaking his head as she saw the heroes trying to oppose him. "Why can you not just accept this? Why can you not just see what I am trying to do?"

"I've never liked men who play being god," Diana responded. "And that includes real gods."

"So you choose to oppose me?" Thanos waved at the chaos his forces were unleashing. "It won't work. You can't win against my might. Why throw away your lives going against me? I've won, accept it."

Captain America shook his head as he hurled his shield. "As long as one person stands against you, Thanos, you'll never be able to claim victory."

Thanos caught the shield and sniffed. "As you wish." He was about to hurl it back when a burst of lightning raked over him courtesy of Thor. He looked to Diana and smiled. "One of Olympus? I recognize the aura."

"More a…distant relative," Diana returned.

Jane caught her hammer as she smiled. "I'd be a bit put out if I didn't enjoy this myself." Wonder Woman returned the smile as the two women and the God of Thunder charged at Thanos.

* * *

Atom looked around the strange area. "This is…not quite what I expected."

"It's the Stone," Strange explained. "It's trying to keep untold trillions of people from freaking out so a peaceful setting is considered best." He looked the trio over and sighed. "Ah, beggars can't be choosers."

"Oh, really?" Scott crossed his arms. "From what Constantine told us, you weren't exactly the best choice to be the supreme magician of Earth."

Strange shrugged. "Maybe but right now, we have work to do." He moved forward, putting a hand on Ray's shoulder, then on Scott's. "Whoa, what is this?" Ray spoke up.

"Magic is science with a delusion of grandeur," Strange said. "You're still tied to the physical world. Which means, I can use you as a tether and get out a message." He closed his eyes to concentrate.

* * *

In the lab, Victor suddenly stiffened as his human eye seemed to glaze. "Whoa."

Shuri looked at him. "What? What is it?"

In answer, Victor moved to the Mother Box. He carefully unplugged it and positioned it with the center of the Box aimed at the Gauntlet. "Better back up," he intoned. "This could get crazy."

"We passed that point a while ago," Shuri stated. She watched him and her eyes widened. "Are you…" She paused and then raced to a nearby bench, quickly rummaging through things. She grabbed a large tool in one hand and what looked like a complex mirror in the other. She raced over, placing the screen before the Box. Cyborg nodded as he followed her thinking, carefully centering the exact eye of the Box at the Soul Stone.

"You really think this will work?"

"One thing I've been learning…" Cyborg took a deep breath. "It's that sometimes, you have to get a little crazy when it comes to the cosmic stuff."

With that, he closed his good eye as his fingers extended wires into the Box. Hissing, he allowed a beam of light to fire out of it. It pierced the screen and into the Soul Stone.

Within the stone, everyone's eyes turned upward as the "sky" seemed to turn a brighter color. Strange smiled as he floated upward, his eyes closed. On the Gauntlet, the Time Stone seemed to glow brightly. A link of energy flowed from it and into the Soul Stone, the Time Stone seemed to slowly disintegrate before Shuri's eyes. Inside the Stone, Strange let out a smile as he felt the Eye of Agamotto reform around his neck and settled on his chest.

"This is getting weird," Hope noted.

"Hard as it is to believe, I have seen a lot weirder," Ray had to note.

Outside, Shuri was staring at how the Time Stone had appeared to vanish from the Gauntlet. Inside, Strange crossed his arms and concentrated hard, whispering under his breath. Outside, Cyborg increased the power flowing from the Box, watching as data flowed before his computerized vision. Equations that would take the best computers on Earth hours at best were done in just seconds until the final result was before him.

The Box erupted in one huge beam of light directed right into the Soul Stone. At the same moment, Strange allowed the Eye to open up and blast upward at the "sky" above him. The Eye's power was greater than anyone had known, even the Ancient One herself. It struck from within as the Mother Box, a cosmic device crafted by one of the most advanced civilizations of its universe hit it from outside.

It started with a tiny crack. Then another. Then more and more as the pressure of the two energies tore at it. Shuri instinctively stepped back as she saw the gem shine brighter and could hear the power start to build.

And in one final eruption of light, the Soul Stone exploded.

Shuri shrieked but Cyborg was prepared, his armor creating a personal force field to deflect the shards of glass and energy. But rather than a pure eruption of power, the Stone streaked out pure light. It flew past them and out of Stark Tower. On the streets, any combat paused long enough to see the light erupt out of the Tower and up into the sky. It flew past Superman, Supergirl and Captain Marvel and into space before breaking into countless new beams. From there came other beams of light, blasting through the barriers to cross dimensions and into their own universes.

On every planet, it hit and in seconds, what had once been lost was now reborn.

* * *

 **Earth-1, Star City**

Felicity gasped out as she leaned on the desk. She looked up to see John, Roy, Dinah, Curtis and Renee there, sharing the same startled looks. "That was…Oh, wow…"

John shivered. "Damn, Oliver…You really can pull it off."

* * *

 **Earth-1, Central City**

Iris Allen-West and Joe West embraced inside STAR Labs, only able to laugh.

* * *

 **Earth-38, National City**

J'onn was thrown to see numerous agents suddenly reappear around the DEO base. Winn let out a loud gasp before seeing him. "Oh, thank you, thank you, I'm back, I'm so glad I'm not dead anymore!" He moved to hug J'onn tightly. The man gave a small eye roll but decided this was one time he'd allow it.

* * *

Inside the lab, Cyborg and Shuri both stood up from the table they'd ducked under. They could see movement and slowly rose up to see a pack of figures standing before them. Shuri's eyes widened as she saw a familiar figure and raced forward to embrace T'Challa. Her bother hugged back as Shuri felt herself crying.

Strange smiled at Cyborg. "Victor Stone, right? Nice to meet you."

"We know each other?"

"Not exactly but this was the best shot I saw coming." He nodded at the group around him. "Met a few…friends of yours, figured they could be a help." Victor's eye trailed over them and he grinned as he saw some familiar faces.

A buzz cut through the speakers nearby. " _If that meant what I hope it meant,_ " Tony's voice echoed. " _We could use any help with the freaking invasion of New York_."

"You heard the man." Everyone looked up as Constantine entered and a few jaws dropped at the figures coming behind him. "I just got through restoring a soul but what the hell, I can do with a proper encore."

Slowly pressing through the crowd of people, Peter Quill stared at the green-skinned woman before him. "He said you were dead."

"I was," Gamora intoned. "But looks like he," she nodded to Constantine. "Was able to get me back.

Constantine shrugged. "I figured he'd find a way to get her into that Stone so just had to do some checking. Nebula here helped me with the anchor part, tricky but thankfully, I am an expert."

Peter moved to hug her and she returned it before Cyborg coughed. "Ah, still an invasion to get through."

"Right," Panther stated as he allowed his mask to flow around him. "To arms."

The large green-skinned man with odd markings over his body frowned. "I have arms. We all have arms, why would need to go to any?"

* * *

Moments earlier, the blast of light had erupted across New York. Tony's eyes flew to his monitors as he gasped. "I've got….holy shit, I've got people just showing up out of nowhere!"

All around New York, men, women and children were appearing, flowing back as if reconstructed out of dust. Many just seemed amazed, others gasping and others laughing. Of course, more than a few found themselves surrounded by a variety of aliens, elves, frost giants and HYDRA soldiers.

But they also found themselves surrounded by heroes.

* * *

Thanos was frozen in place, staring about in horror. "What…have you done?"

"Set things right," Tony snapped. Thanos was too rocked to see his work undone to avoid the strike of Mjolnir smashing into his jaw just as Diana smashed him with a fist.

Captain America was dodging an alien blow when he heard a familiar sound echo overhead. He looked up and felt his heart soar to see the Falcon flying down, unloading with his twin pistols. A machine gun fired off as the Winter Solider arrived, knocking a HYDRA agent back with his metal arm. He looked to Steve and had to let out a small grin. "Looks like I'm one up on you again for coming back from the dead." Steve had to laugh and embrace his best friend.

* * *

Barry was racing at high speed when he felt something behind him. He looked over and stared at…himself.

It wasn't quite an exact copy. The suit was the same color with the yellow bolts at her chest and waist and the ear pieces. However, it looked more like armor and the man under the mask just started as he saw Barry. "Um…hi."

"Hi," Barry said, a bit more used to this. "Barry Allen."

"Really? Me too." The other Flash shook his head. "Okay, this really is weird."

"You get used to it." Barry looked over at the man and frowned. "Huh, how come your lightning is blue?"

"No idea. Soooo, how do we play this?"

"I take east, you take west."

The other Flash smiled. "Race you later." He took off as Barry chuckled. He paused as he saw Batman attacked by a frost giant. In seconds, Barry had smashed the figure down and nodded to Batman. "Nice to meet you. I'm guessing you're that Batman guy?"

He nodded. "Listen, I've got the east side covered but I can help if you need it."

"I don't."

The man made Oliver look downright cheerful, Barry mused to himself. He shrugged as he took off. Batman watched him go and grunted. "Wonder if we can trade Allens…"

* * *

Mick was firing a blast from his flamethrower when he saw a HYDRA soldier suddenly yanked off his feet by a large black man in a pair of jeans and yellow shirt. He smashed a blow that sent the agent flying several feet into a lamppost. A young blonde man was racing into the area, his shirt open to show what looked to be a dragon tattoo across his chest. He held up his fist to show it glowing, then plunged it the chest of an alien, its armor shattering under the blow.

For the first time, Jessica looked cheerful as she grinned at them both. "Good to see you guys back."

"Good not being dead." Luke looked over, then did a double-take at the man in the suit nearby. "Matt? That you?"

"It's Daredevil!" he snapped.

"You know that's a dumb-ass name."

"See, he agrees!" Mick noted.

"I can figure some better!" Cisco intoned as he fired a blast out.

Their attention was caught by a horde of Chitauri charging from down the street. A loud cry suddenly echoed that brought a huge smile to Rocket's face. With a roar, a creature leapt down and landed on the street. It looked for all the world like a walking tree, standing tall as it threw up its hands, its branch arms swinging out to smash several aliens back. Standing on its legs, the creature let out a huge cry. " _I. Am. GROOT_!"

"Holy shit, we've got an Ent," Cisco breathed. "This is the greatest day of my life."

Rocket let out a long and loud laugh as the tree creature went on the attack. He swung his branches about to scatter elves and aliens alike. Rocket was jumping about with a grin looking it in the eye. "Good ta see ya, buddy!"

" _I am Groot_."

"I know, I know, it's been nuts."

" _I am Groot_?"

"No, I am not crying!" Rocket said as he wiped at his eyes.

Jessica slowly shook her head. "Okay, screw the rest of you guys. Talking trees is where I draw the line." She began marching back toward the bar, nonchalantly punching a HYDRA soldier as she went. Mick paused to roast an alien, then shrugged to follow her. Before they could, a blast from overhead ripped into the bar, causing a huge explosion. Ducking from it, Jessica and Mick exchanged looks of pure rage. "Oh, it's on," Jessica hissed.

A roar echoed as Star-Lord flew in on his jet boots. "Rocket, you okay?"

"Never thought I'd be happy to see your ugly mug, Quill!"

"Back atcha."

"Who are you?" Luke demanded.

"Me?" The man smiled. "I'm Star-Lord."

"Who?"

Quill sighed as he looked over at Danny. "And you?"

"I'm the Immortal Iron Fist."

Cisco rubbed his temples. "This is why I handle the nicknames, people!"

* * *

Tony was flying overhead, concentrating blasts at the various small craft firing down at the streets. Something caught his eye and he looked over to see a red and blue garbed figure flow past him, his arms clutched to a line of some sort. For the first time in days, Tony Stark felt a huge weight lifted off his shoulders. "Kid? You okay?"

"I think so," Spider-Man said. "Um, Mr. Stark…am I…still an Avenger?"

"Kid…today…we're all Avengers."

"Have you talked to my aunt?"

"Was just a tiny bit busy today."

"Because I really think she'll be worried…"

"Pete. Right now we have bigger issues."

"Right. Right, got it." Spider-Man swung down as he saw some elves going after a pack of civilians below. He swung out to kick one down, then webbed another before pulling on him, sending the creature flying about. His head buzzed as he leapt to avoid blasts and kick another alien down.

A whipping sound echoed as a batarang hit a Chitauri and exploded against him. Spider-Man watched as a black-garbed figure leapt into the fray to go on the offensive against the foes. Taking advantage, Peter waved for the civilians to quickly race to a nearby subway station.

"Are you a good guy?" Spider-Man asked. "Just, you look kinda dark and scary so I don't know many good guys who are like that." Batman had knocked down an alien and turned to stare at him, Peter blanching behind the mask. "I mean, no offense, the whole…bat thing…is really cool but in a freaky way." Batman just kept staring as Peter backed up. "Okay, well-nice to meet you, Bat-Guy but, you know, folks to save, so see you!" He fired a webline off as Batman just shook his head.

"Ah, he's a good kid." Batman turned to see a white-haired man with a bushy mustache and a bright smile standing next to him. He just shrugged under the Dark Knight's gaze. "Just saying, folks like a lighter hero. Excelsior!" He walked off as Batman just wondered what kind of weird world this was.

* * *

Black Panther leapt about, slashing at several of the aliens. Lightning was nearby, firing off blasts. "To me!" T'Challa called out and Jefferson fired off a blast to him. Panther deflected it off his claws to fry several aliens.

Lightning grinned as he held up a palm. The Panther looked at it for a long moment before slapping it.

Nearby, Alex fired a blast from her suit to knock a HYDRA agent back while Nyssa slashed her sword out to cut down an elf. Thea was firing off arrows at enemies as Natasha had moved to fire off her own guns. "Reminds me of a time in Budapest."

"Oddly, same here," Nyssa remarked.

A Hydra soldier leapt up to fire his rifle. "Hail HYDRA!"

Alex smashed him with a shot. "God, I am sick of hearing that!"

Thea growled as she dodged an alien blast to fire an arrow at her foes. "I was retired, you know that? Really, was giving all this up and wasn't in the mood to fight aliens."

"Relax," Alex responded. "This is my third or fourth invasion defense, it's becoming old hat."

Nyssa smirked at her. "I hardly think anything would look old on you."

Natasha and Thea exchanged an eye roll.

* * *

Near the edge of the city facing the ocean, Nate had joined with Daisy who was unleashing quake blasts as he slammed his steel fists into opponents. Drax was with them, cutting down aliens with a fantastic glee while Mantis was using her own moves against them. Peter fired off his blasters and winced as he saw more coming from a side street. Star-Lord cursed as he fired off his blasters. "Drax, buy me some time!"

"You cannot buy time! It is not a physical commodity…"

Ignoring him, Star-Lord was ready to reload a gun when a figure stepped into view. He was a handsome man with a long black beard and hair. His outfit appeared to be armored green pants and a golden top of chain male that flaunted a highly muscular body with various tattoos. He had a forked trident in one hand and the bearing of someone used to getting attention.

"The hell are you?" Star-Lord demanded.

"They call me Aquaman," the man responded in a gruff tone.

"Aquaman?" Star-Lord just laughed. "I'm sorry, dude, but….seriously? What, you talk to fish?"

"Yeah," the man grunted.

Star-Lord laughed and Drax, Nate and Daisy weren't far behind him. "Look no offense, dude, but exactly what kind of lame-ass power…"

Without a word, Aquaman brought up his trident and slammed it into the ground. A roar suddenly washed over as waves came cascading from the harbor. In a huge explosion of water, a humpback whale flew outward and landed right on top of the large troop carrier, crushing it to pieces. The whale continued to ride the small tidal wave of water that washed it right back into the other side of the pier and into the water. Joining it were roughly two dozen more attackers with twice that many lying on the ground, soaked and stunned.

Aquaman just picked up his trident and marched in as the men just stared after him in disbelief.

Bubbling up from the water came a stunningly gorgeous woman in a tight green outfit. Her red hair flowed like water around her as she held up her hands. At her command, a massive funnel of water erupted out and hit the ship floating in the sky to knock it off balance. This enhanced the attacks of Iron Man and War Machine hitting it with missiles to damage it more.

Mera smiled at Arthur as she landed on the street. "You take me to the loveliest spots."

"This isn't a date," he responded as the two dove into the water, swimming like torpedoes to the other edge of the city.

Drax watched them go and then looked to the others. "That…is a man."

* * *

Wanda Maximoff was erupting with power. Her hands flowed with crimson energy as she fired off blasts, crushing armor, knocking enemies back and tearing apart flying carriers. Constantine let loose a fireball before looking at her. "A tad upset, are we?'

Wanda just ignored him as she pressed on, so consumed by rage and loss that she failed to see a HYDRA agent draw a bead on her. In a blur, the man was on his back and stripped to his underwear. Wanda turned to see the white-haired man smiling warmly at her. "You've grown, little sister."

Wanda stared, her eyes wide and her face showing how she was afraid to truly hope. "Pietro?"

He moved to hug her and she returned it, tears flowing down her face. "Little sister," he whispered.

"By two minutes," she returned, lapsing into their native tongue. "I can't believe you're back."

"Thank that Flash person," Quicksilver responded. He backed up to look her over. "You changed your hair. And the accent is less."

"At least I still look better," she returned and he grinned. "I have so much to tell you."

"Later," he responded. "We've got things to do." He nodded as he blurred off. Wanda just smiled as for the first time in three years, her heart felt a lot more whole.

* * *

"Ready?" Clint asked as he hefted his arrow up.

"Ready." Oliver returned as he did the same. The two were on rooftops several blocks apart, each aiming their bows up at the large ship floating overhead. They drew back together then let the bows go with the arrows flying upward at high speed.

The two arrows streaked to either side of the ship before a blur suddenly erupted. From seemingly nowhere stood the Atom and Ant-Man, each now grown to 50 feet tall, their boots smashing into the harbor. Each took one end of the ship and pulled, grunting under the effort. With an eruption of flame and grinding metal, the ship was torn apart and the pieces crashing into the harbor.

In seconds, Ray and Scott were back on shore at normal size and heaving with breath. "That…was… _awesome_!" Scott laughed and Ray joined in. On the rooftops, Oliver and Ray exchanged "ok" signals.

* * *

Superman's eyes faded as he watched the last of the alien ships start to float off, its engines ruined by his heat vision. He saw Captain Marvel fly through the wreckage of another as Kara joined them. Sharing a nod, the trio raced into the atmosphere, Kara letting out a long swallow of air. In seconds, they were back in New York, pausing only to hit another alien ship floating towards the city. The trio hit it together, driving it downward and into the harbor, burying it under the waves before flying right back into the fray. Superman had his fists out and ramming into Thanos with Carol joining him.

War Machine just stared from his spot floating. "Tony, who are these guys?"

Wasp was shifting about, going from shrunken to normal size to blast down enemies. She floated past Laurel and Sara as the two Lances fought back to back smashing their weapons against enemies. Nearby, Gamora and Nebula were doing the same, Nebula throwing a HYDRA agent back as Gamora cut down another with her sword, then turned to fire her blaster to cut down a pair of elves. Sara looked to Gamora with a frown. "Thought you were dead."

"I was," she returned. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Been there myself so I know how it is." Gamora threw her a surprise look as Sara smiled. "We can chat later." She smashed her staff on a Chitauri as Gamora kicked another to Nebula, who picked it up to smash head first into the pavement. Drax was joining them, roaring out as he carved up anyone in his path with his knives as Mantis used her own moves to take down other foes.

Okoye had joined with T'Challa, unable to hold back her grin as she saw her king returned, both clawing and slashing enemies. Wally raced past them and to a rooftop to take out a group of snipers, then raced down the other side into another street to rescue a pair of children. Atop a skyscraper, Thor was unleashing lightning to rake across the streets, specifically driving back the various invaders. Jane was hurling Mjolnir to smash against an oncoming HYDRA troop carrier, crushing it in one blow. In a blur, Quicksilver was there to punch out several of the men, Wanda leaping from his back to unleash her powers on others.

Iron Fist and Luke were brawling with several HYDRA agents as Rocket stood atop Groot's shoulders firing off his guns as Groot marched down the streets. Mick fired off a burst from his gun before handing a bottle of vodka to Jessica. She swallowed some before kicking a HYDRA agent into a window. Cyborg had flown in, unleashing a blast from his sonic cannon to deafen several elves. Shuri was with him, firing off from her large gauntlets to send the enemies back.

Caitlin froze an elf in place as Cisco created a portal to allow Sif and Valkyrie to get several blocks over and slash apart several elves. Black Widow was using her own batons as Speedy fired off her arrows with Nyssa backing her up. Blurs of red, yellow and blue crisscrossed about as the Flashes, Wally and Quicksilver were at high speeds, rescuing civilians while also dealing with various invading stragglers. Doctor Strange was helping as well, casting spells to teleport civilians out of the way while also unleashing his magics at attackers. Mera waved a hand to burst open a fire hydrant, turning the water into a battering ram against a pack of aliens as Aquaman hurled his trident to cut down a frost giant.

Captain America threw out his shield to smash into a HYDRA soldier while Phil Coulson was using his photonic one to defend himself as he fired out several shots of his gun. Bucky was firing his machine gun while Batman backed them up with his martial arts moves and gadgets. Overhead, the Falcon flew to knock some Chitauri off the buildings nearby. He dodged as Spider-Man swung from another roof, the huge web created between two buildings "catching" a Chitauri ship. The Hulk bounded down to crush an oncoming horde of fighters, landing to smash a police car into a Frost Giant. He saw Groot nearby, using his own branches to clear enemies out. " _I am Groot_."

The Hulk cocked his head. "I am Hulk."

" _I am Groot_."

"I am Hulk."

" _I. Am. Groot_."

"I am Hulk!"

They stared at each other….then broke into huge grins and shared a high five.

It was brutal. It was bloody. It was smash-mouth. And it was, in essence, a slaughter. Of the invading forces.

* * *

Thanos gasped out, feeling blood pouring out of his cracked lip. "You….have undone…everything…"

"The universe is infinite," Superman stated. "I know that. And even if it wasn't, you could have used all that power to increase resources, do away with want."

"The issue would have remained. The population would have grown again…"

"The problem with people like you, Thanos? You assume everyone else is as greedy and twisted as you are. You can never conceive anyone would care enough to fix the problems by any means but the extreme. And as long as men like you are around…people like me are there to stop them."

Thanos growled before a huge blast from Carol knocked him to his back. He grunted, their blows having taken their toll on him. Sparks of energy and blurs of light flowed around as soon, he found himself surrounded by over two dozen very powerful and very ticked off people. His eyes fell on one and slowly widened. "Gamora?"

She stepped forward, her face cold. "You claimed I was the only thing you loved. But I wasn't. No, you loved what I represented. That one tiny little piece of you that actually felt to others. That part you could never truly destroy." Her face tightened. "But you did. You killed me…And killed that part of yourself."

"As with my family," Drax growled, ready to move in but a hand from Iron Man held him back.

Thanos slowly rose to his feet. "What now? We fight? Oh, you'll win, I have no doubt. But it doesn't matter. What you have done…has doomed the universe. It will fall as my world did."

"Just maybe if you'd actually worked with your planet rather than embark on this madness, it might have been different," Diana retorted.

Batman snorted. "That's always the problem. Thinking in absolutes. People don't respond to ultimatums, just solutions."

"The only solution was the one I offered!" Thanos snarled. "To protect this universe, it had to be culled. Why is it so-"

A repulsor blast smashed him back as Iron Man stepped forward. "That's it, I've had enough of this loon."

Cap stepped forward. "It's over, Thanos. I don't care where we have to find it, we're shoving you into one very dark hole."

"Excuse me?" Luke Cage spoke up. "A half hour ago, I was dead and so were half the people here! You think we're letting this bastard just live after that?"

Cap glared. "I don't kill in cold blood."

"That's all right," Drax stated as he moved forward. "My blood can be quite cool."

"Okay, so, all those in favor of killing this guy?" Tony called out. A good two dozen hands from various heroes of multiple worlds went up. "There we go, then!" Thor was grinning as hefted a crackling Stormbreaker. However, Superman stepped forward. "No."

Tony gaped at him. "Seriously? The guy wiped out half the universe! I don't care they got put back, there's still how many dead because of him?"

"We don't kill," Batman growled. "Not even him."

"I have to go with that," Kara stated.

"I'm fine with it," Oliver growled and Sara had to nod as well.

Tony glared at Superman. "We're the Avengers. It's sort of in our name."

"And that's the difference," Superman stated. "We're not about vengeance. We're about justice." He looked to Cyborg. "Vic?"

At his nod, the young man opened one of the metallic pouches on his leg. He reached in to remove a device that within seconds great into what looked like a large lantern of some sort. Kara's eyes widened as she took it in, instantly recognizing the technology. "Wait…is that…"

"You have it on your world?" Kal asked.

"It's a bit different but same concept."

Kal nodded as he took the device and hefted it up, the emitter aimed at Thanos. Somehow knowing something was coming, the rest of the group backed up to give a wide berth. Thanos just rose to his feet, his jaw thrust upward, defiant as ever. "Do your worst. You think I fear death?"

"No," Superman replied. "Which is why you're not getting it." He pressed a button and pulled on a lever as a beam of darkness swept out of the projector. It hit Thanos dead on and he gasped as what felt like ice covered his body. He looked at his hands to see them slowly start to fade as if going transparent. "Wha…what are you…what is this?!"

"It's just what you wanted," Superman intoned. "A universe of balance. Where everyone and everything in it is equal. As in without any true form or substance, a shadow unable to ever affect the world of the living and unable to harm anyone else."

Kara had a satisfied smirk on her face. "Enjoy the Phantom Zone."

Thanos just shook his head even as his body became more and more transparent. "No…It can't end like this…I was supposed to save the universe!"

"And you will," Diana returned. "By being out of it."

Thanos let out a loud howl of pure outrage just as his form finally faded away. It looked as if something was being sucked into the projector as the beam faded. Superman shut it down and nodded. "That's that."

Tony let out a long breath and shook his head. "That was…wow…"

"He's really gone?" Spider-Man asked.

"A place like that, you just don't come back from," Supergirl answered.

Steve slowly looked around. "We've got work left. There's repairs to the city, people still needing help, a lot of clean-up…"

Bucky chuckled. "Always about business. Good to be back to that."

Tony looked over to Strange. "And now you're going to claim you saw this coming."

Strange shrugged. "14 million futures, Stark. This was the only one that worked. I know, the short-term damage was nasty but...Sometimes, you have to make a tough call to save the patient's life."

A coughing sound echoed as Spider-Man raised a hand. "Before we start doing anything else…Does anyone have a phone? I have to call my aunt."

* * *

The red suited man smiled as he slowly began to walk away, whistling to himself. "Someone's quite happy." The man stopped and turned to see Loki standing nearby gazing at him.

"I am, actually," the man replied. "I got what I wanted."

"I've been trying to figure out why," Loki stated. "Why do this? Why offer 'help' to Thanos that you knew would blow up in his face?"

"Why?" The man smiled which grew wider and wider. "I thought that would be obvious." His skin changed to a dark red along with his hair. "The way he was going, he was messing things up, running the cosmic balance." His eyes became a solid yellow as horns grew at his head. "More importantly, he was keeping billions of souls away. In essence, he was cheating me." The suit flowed around into a long red cloak. "And no one…cheats _Mephisto_."

Loki pursed his lips. "So you played his ally just to set up his fall…"

"Let's just say, long past time the Red Skull landed in my kingdom."

"And yet you somehow spirited Sin away. Why?" Mephisto smiled and Loki sighed. "You're playing your games again."

"And you're not?" Mephisto chuckled. "Just how long are you going to keep up this 'ghost' act?"

Loki stared at him before his form finally solidified. "I thought it the best move."

"Letting your brother think you were dead again? And I'm evil."

Loki shrugged. "I prefer to think of it as a fresh start."

"To each their own." Mephisto smiled. "See you around, little godling. I look forward to our next game."

He vanished in a large puff of smoke. Loki spared a glance at the various heroes. Then, in his own shimmering glow, he too disappeared, leaving the pack of heroes with the clean-up duties.

* * *

 **Just had to go into some nice stuff on the battle. And come on, had to throw in a Stan lee cameo somehow.**

 **Next chapter has a bit more epilogue to things, with some wrap-ups and hope you stick around for it.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Infinity Crisis**

 **By Michael Weyer**

* * *

The penthouse of Tony Stark hadn't been this occupied in a very long time. But it was packed with people and a feeling not felt in a long time: Celebration.

"Let me get this straight," Cisco was saying as he waved to Danny Rand. "You were a millionaire whose parents died, you spent years away in a distant land training then returned to reclaim your company and fight crime." He looked over to Oliver. "You sure you're not related to him?"

Oliver rolled his eyes as he walked off. He saw Clint hanging up a phone with a smile. "Talk to your family?"

"Yep. My wife is a bit freaked but she's still alive. I have to get back soon but Tony insisted everyone be here." He looked to Oliver. "I'm guessing your wife is back."

"We'll be heading back soon but didn't feel right just leaving," Oliver stated. He smiled at Clint. "You were good out there."

"So were you. For an amateur."

Oliver glared. "Hey, I learned to use it to survive. Where did you learn, from a circus?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Clint glared. "I meant what I said the other day, I can beat you at archery any time."

"Really?"

"Really!"

"Prove it, old-timer!"

"Oh, let's go, punk!" Clint marched off with Oliver following, each grabbing their bow as they walked out. Thea rolled her eyes to follow, figuring someone had to keep an eye on those two.

* * *

"Let me get this straight…" The Justice League Barry Allen was talking, now clad in jeans and a red shirt. "A psycho super-speedster from the future came back in time and killed mom just to get to me?"

"It's what happened to me," Barry replied. "Sounds like it might be you too."

Allen shook his head. "I barely have a focus on keeping my job, let alone handling my own arch-nemesis."

"If you need pointers, I can help," Barry said. "It's important to get another Flash going."

"Huh. You need help with this DeVoe guy Cisco was mentioning?"

"Ah, I think I can handle him. If I can help reset the universe, taking on some nutcase doesn't sound so intimidating anymore." He paused and smiled. "Then again…he keeps boasting that he knows just what's going to happen. Maybe it's time I give him something he could never ever predict."

"Flashes of two worlds!" Allen held up a hand as Barry slapped it and both let out loud gasps at the electrical shock that went through both. Allen waved his hand as he looked over at Peter Parker. "Huh, nice to finally not be the youngest guy around."

"Yeah, what are you, 15?" Barry asked.

"17!" Peter snapped. "I mean…soon."

"So what happened?" Allen asked. "How'd you get your powers?"

"Oh, I was bitten by a radioactive spider."

Allen snorted. "Fine, don't tell me…"

"No, no, I was!"

"Yeah, yeah…"

"Well, what about him?" Peter pointed to Danny. "How'd he get that glowing fist?"

"I earned it," Danny returned. "I punched the heart of a dragon."

"That's even worse than his story!"

* * *

Bruce Wayne wasn't exactly a party person as he sipped at his drink. Aquaman was looking over at him in a gruff manner. "Thought this'd be your scene totally."

Wayne shrugged. "I'm not used to mingling among other super types, as you know."

"Come on, live a little!" Tony said as he came over. "I get you're a rich guy, I can see the type. We just saved the world, enjoy yourself!"

Wayne eyed him carefully. "I can already tell I can learn a lot from you."

"Really?" Tony beamed.

Wayne nodded. "I need to learn more about being a foppish rich jackass in public. You seem a great case study." He sipped his champagne as Tony looked a bit put out.

"Listen, I am a genius billionaire playboy who could easily hack my way into NORAD. What have you got?"

Bruce just looked at him. "I can break every bone in your body without breaking a sweat."

"You're really not a people person, are you?"

"Depends on the people."

"Asgard?" Diana was asking. "We haven't had much contact with them in our world."

"Or with Olympus here," Thor replied. "I have met Hercules. A good drinker but a rather boorish figure."

Diana nodded, her face quite calm despite a bit of sweat dripping from her forehead. She was sitting on the table, her hand clasped in Thor's, elbows on the surface as they were locked in an arm wrestling match. Several others were watching with amazement as neither were budging an inch.

"How long have they been doing this?" Jane asked.

Clark glanced at the clock. "Going on thirty-five minutes."

"Think she'll win?"

"I learned to never underestimate Diana." Clark looked to her. "How are you?"

"Getting used to it." Jane nodded to the hammer hanging off her waist. "Just still feel the power in me, it's amazing…"

"I know, took me a bit to get used to my abilities. Are you still going to keep your old job?"

"Probably. Course, I can see the stars a lot closer now…"

"That's good. I found keeping your human life as much as possible is just what you need."

"I agree." Kara came up, Clark not at all surprised she'd heard them. "I spent too much time in the last year trying to be Supergirl instead of plain Kara Danvers. I needed perspective to realize how important my human side is."

"I had the same problem," Clark admitted. "I took too long to find out who I really was and longer to embrace it. Even then, I kept wondering if the world needed me. But it took dying to realize how important life was."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Oh, geez, we're running out of people here who haven't been dead already." She paused to look at him, then to Kara. "All right, I have to ask. The glasses? I mean…how does that even work?"

They both chuckled. "Well, it helps when I do this." Clark slouched his posture a bit and dropped his voice an octave and before Jane's eyes, became a bit less imposing.

"Plus," Kara added. "Think about it. If you were a regular person and saw us doing what we do, would you even think we had another life?"

Jane had to nod as Kara smiled to Clark. "You and my Kal would get along well. I mean, you're a bit more…intense."

"I'll figure if that's good or bad later." Clark smiled warmly at her. "At least it's good to know…in his universe, he's not the only one." Kara smiled back as she nodded.

Across the room, another competition was going on. Jessica slammed her now empty glass in front of the half dozen other before her, wiping at her mouth. She smirked as Valkyrie downed a mug of her own, then without hesitation, downed another, slamming both down and grinning. "More?"

Jessica shook her head as she got to her feet. "Nope. Think I know when I'm outmatched in something." She stumbled before steadying herself. Sitting next to Valkyrie, Sif lifted her own glass in a toast as the two drank together.

"Too bad." Mick was downing a beer of his own nearby. "I was pulling for you."

Jessica was moving around the couch and leaned in to hiss in Mick's ear. "Second bedroom on the right, five minutes." She walked off as Mick slowly finished his beer before rising up.

Laurel sipped her own drink, musing on her situation. "You okay?" Sara asked as she sat with her.

Laurel sighed. "Just figuring my next move out. Going back isn't really appealing. I'm not their Laurel and trying to be was…foolish. Still, not sure what I can do next. I mean, given what I've done in my life…"

"You made mistakes," Sara stated. "You hurt people. You killed people. You're broken. You know what I call that?" She leaned in. "A Legend."

Laurel blinked. "Wait…join your team?"

"Why not?" Sara sighed under her look. "Listen…I know I'm not your Sara, you're not my Laurel but…" She put a hand on the other woman's shoulder. "Maybe we can still help each other out."

Laurel looked at her and slowly nodded. "I'd like that. A lot."

Sara was smiling as Kara came over. "Hey, either of you guys seen Alex?"

Sara frowned. "Thought she was headed to the hallway."

"Weird, she's usually around the bar at these things." Kara began walking down a hallway with the Lances following. They heard muffled sounds from a room, frowning as they heard a curse inside. Kara moved to open the door and let the trio see Alex and Nyssa, furiously tearing at each other's clothes while sharing hot kisses.

Kara squealed as she slammed the door but the pair were too into each other to register her presence. She looked to Sara, who was sharing the same expression of utter disbelief on her own face. They just stared before they became aware of Black Siren with a hand over her face.

"They…they were…" Kara began.

Siren couldn't take it anymore and burst out into long and hysterical laughter. Sara and Kara both glared at her hard. "It's not funny!" Sara barked.

"Oh, come on!" Siren waved to Kara. "Your sister." She waved to Sara. "Who was your one-night stand is now with your ex!" She started to laugh once again. Sara and Kara looked at each other and within seconds, they too were laughing loudly. They were still laughing as they walked off. Moments later, the door on the other side of the hallway burst off its hinges as a half-naked Jessica and Mick stumbled about into the hallway and then slammed into the opposite door, causing a pair of loud shrieks and a few fists being thrown.

* * *

" _I am Groot."_

Bruce slowly nodded. "Huh. Uh huh…Okay, so you ended up growing out of this smaller phase and into a bigger one?'

" _I am Groot_." The tree creature remarked.

"Weird. It's like somehow your return to life got you back to your natural state."

" _I am Groot."_

Caitlin and Cisco were looking from one to the other. "You...understand that?" Caitlin asked.

Bruce shrugged. "Makes total sense to me."

"No I know how they feel around R2-D2," Cisco muttered. Rocket was just smirking as he downed a drink himself. Nearby, Aquaman was helping himself to several plates of food as Drax examined a piece of shrimp like it was an alien life form. "Yeah, you can eat it."

"What is it?"

"A form of fish."

Drax frowned at him. "You talk to fish but you eat them?"

"I talk to them, I don't have conversations," Arthur replied. "And what the hell do you think they eat?"

"I do not know, what?"

"You're an odd guy, you know that?"

"Yes. I do, thank you." Mantis was too busy examining the food as if listening to them to note their conversation.

Natasha passed them as she saw Bucky staring at her. "What?"

"Just thinking," he responded. "We've met before, haven't we? Before Steve found me again."

Natasha stared back. "I wasn't sure if you remembered."

"Bits and pieces," he admitted. "But…" He looked to her. "Maybe you can help me put some back together."

Natasha spared a look at Bruce in a corner then looked back to him. "Yeah. I would."

Jefferson sipped his drink as he looked to T'Challa. "You're really a king?"

T'Challa nodded. "I am." Okoye was at his side as ever, refusing to be off duty even here. "I understand you are a teacher?"

"Principal, really."

"Interesting. I had considered a path such as that. To take on an identity of a teacher in the inner city, to lean more of modern culture that way."

"Might be a good idea."

"Alas, my current duties are more important."

"Being a hero is important," Jefferson noted. "But I'd like to think I've helped saved and inspire more folks in a teacher suit than I did in costume." T'Challa mulled his words over.

Luke was shaking his head. "Listen, all for you guys helping out but…you have to wear the 'Black' in your title?"

Panther frowned. "It has been our tradition for centuries before your country existed."

"And when I started out, I was the only one of us out there," Jefferson returned. "I was angry back then so wanted folks to know it."

Luke shrugged. "I get the anger, believe me. Just saying, you could tone down the name a bit."

"Ah, part of the legacy now." Jefferson smiled. "My daughters love it."

"Okay, well, power to you. You still have assholes on your world acting like the Confederacy was a great thing?"

Jefferson let out a sad sigh in response and Luke rolled his eyes. "Fine, keep the fight going best you can."

"A good statement for us all," T'Challa noted.

Nearby, Quill and Carol were going over Tony's "jukebox" which was really a terrific collection of just about every song ever recorded. "You gotta be kidding me," Carol muttered. "Madonna is still making music?"

Quill was downloading several songs into his personal player. "Ah, I'll go over them later but some nice stuff here."

"Just give me some Prince," Carol said. "Reminds me, I have to pick up a concert of his before I go back into space. As well as Michael Jackson, one of his shows still remains epic."

"Ah, give me some Bowie."

"Ooooh, yeah, Bowie, gotta see him too!"

Nearby, Hope looked at Scott. "I don't have the heart."

Scott scoffed. "I don't have the life insurance."

* * *

Constantine took a drag on his cigarette before speaking. "Your problem is, you're still looking at magic like it's a science when it's not."

"It is." Strange was now in a light suit with his cloak floating in a corner. "It just has different rules."

"And you keep getting yourself stuck in them, you're going to get yourself killed," Constantine returned. "You have to realize rules are going to be broken a lot and that includes magic itself."

Strange shook his head. "You said magic was different in your universe so different rules." He watched Constantine take another drag. "That's really bad for you. Trust me, I've cut into more than my share of cancer-filled hearts."

Constantine smirked. "Trust me, mate…If you saw half of what I did, you'd need a vice yourself."

Strange held up his hands to show the scars around the fingers. "Believe me, I've been there."

Matt Murdock was sipping a drink quite calmly as Nate waved a hand in front of his face. "Yes, I'm blind," Matt said in the tone of someone who'd had to undergo this quite a few times already. "My other senses are just enhanced."

"Interesting," Daisy noted. "How long you have these powers?"

"Accident with radiation when I was a kid."

"Ah, sorry. Thought you might be an Inhuman too."

"Well, he's a lawyer," Nate threw in. "That borders on Inhuman, right?"

"No lawyer jokes," Matt stated. "I've heard them all."

Danny smiled. "But if you have some from your world we haven't heard yet…"

Gamora was tapping a boot in the corner as Mera looked over to her, now in a lush green dress. "Not a party girl?"

"Generally, when I enter a scene like this, I end up leaving a lot of bodies behind," Gamora noted. She sighed. "Sorry, getting used to be being alive again." She looked off. "All I've wanted for years was to see him dead…And now…What do I do?"

"You go on," Mera said. "As I have. As Arthur has. At least you have someone." She nodded toward Quill nearby. "Take advantage of that."

Gamora mused on it as Quill began dancing to some tunes.

The doors to the main room opened and everyone looked up. The various alternate reality visitors started at the sight of the red-skinned man in what looked like a green costume and yellow cape entering. "Viz!" Tony called out with surprise. "You're back!

The Vision nodded as he came forward. "Yes, I am." Wanda was on her feet, moving to hug him hard. Behind him, Cyborg and Shuri were wearing triumphant smiles. "It was tricky," Shuri admitted. "The main body was a mess but the Mind Stone being intact meant he could be revived."

"Throw in the Mother Box and it wasn't long at all," Cyborg added.

"My thanks," the Vision said to the man.

"Consider it helping a brother of metal," Cyborg returned.

"Holy crap, they have their own Data," Cisco said with a gleam in his eye.

Kara winced. "Let's hope he's better behaved than Red Tornado…"

The Vision looked about before his eyes fell on Quicksilver. "I…see much has happened."

Pietro was coming over, nodding to him. "I rarely have seen my sister happy. But she is with you." He looked to Wanda who smiled back. Pietro still had the smile on his face as he leaned in. "But if you ever make her _unhappy_ …There won't be enough of you left to fit into a tool box."

"So noted," Vision remarked.

Shuri smiled at Cyborg. "That was just amazing! I have to get a full readout of your body!" She blanched a bit. "For the research, you know?"

Falcon smiled at T'Challa. "I'm trying to figure out if it's the guy or the tech she's got a crush on."

"With her, it is difficult to say," the king admitted.

Cyborg was looking over toward Nebula. "Ya know, I can make some enhancements on those if you need it…"

Nebula shook her head. "No. I can do it myself."

Cyborg looked her over carefully. "Do yourself a favor. Never forget it's you that makes you what you are. Not the metal." The tone made it clear he knew this fully and Nebula had to nod in acceptance.

Wanda moved to hug Barry and Wally together. "Thank you both so much for getting him back."

"Our pleasure," Wally smiled.

Barry looked over as he saw Clint and Oliver entering. "So who won?"

Thea was giggling behind them. "Perfect tie. They ended up just slamming their arrows into each other."

"Next time," Clint declared. "We try trick ones."

"Deal."

Cap looked over to Superman. "Cisco give you those devices too?"

He nodded. "Yes, we can bounce between worlds if we need to. It might be a good idea to keep in touch."

Steve nodded as he looked out at the crowd of heroes talking and laughing with drink. "It's good to be together again. Doing the right thing as we need to."

"I used to think saving the world was all myself," Clark told him. "But I realized how badly a team is needed to make it all work."

Cap looked to him. "It was an honor saving the world with you."

"The honor was mine. You know what it's like to be seen as much a symbol as much as a man."

"Deep down, I'm still just a guy from Brooklyn."

"And I'm just a Kansas farm boy." Clark looked toward Tony and Bruce who seemed to be getting into a debate on the economics of the proper armor use. "I trust Bruce but he grew up rich, he can't quite fully know what it's like."

"The same with Tony. Maybe that's what our real job is, to keep them grounded."

"And catch them when they fall." The two exchanged a solemn nod of understanding as the party went on for a few more hours before the inevitable splits were made.

* * *

Zari was waiting on the Waverider's bridge as the team entered. "Hey, glad to have you back! Gideon's saying the timelines are getting stabilized but still some hijinks." She noted the person joining them. "New arrival?"

"Meet my sister from another Earth," Sara stated. By this point, Zari was just nodding to accept it. "I'll get her settled in."

Zari noted Mick with a huge smile on his face, whistling a tune as he headed to his room. "What's with him?"

"He finally found a kindred spirit," Ray stated and Zari decided she didn't want details.

Siren was looking around the ship, impressed by its technology. "This…can work."

Sara smiled. "I think it will. Welcome to the Legends."

* * *

As soon as he stepped into the loft, Oliver was hugging Felicity as Thea kissed Roy hard. Oliver moved to give Diggle a hug which he returned. "Good to have you back." Nyssa hung back, a tiny smile on her face that hadn't been there before.

"Good to be back." Diggle moved back and sighed. "Oliver…I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"For?"

"Being dead…well, in that weird Stone…it gave me perspective. Let me realize how much I've screwed up not trusting you like I should have. I need to be more supportive and not fighting you."

"Ditto," Felicity announced, her face a bit more serious than usual. "What happened was…well, it gave me some perspective too. Made me realize I've been more than a little bit controlling and undercutting you too much. I need to work on that and make this a real partnership."

Oliver smiled at them both. "Take it from the master of second chances…You take what you have when you have it." He nodded to the rest of the team. "That goes for all of you. Look, come on over to the loft, we can have a good dinner with William and figure out where we go next."

"You're the boss," Renee announced. "And this time…we all mean that."

"We all do," Felicity nodded and Oliver smiled at his team.

Black Lightning coughed. "Listen, I hate to just cut out but I do need to get back to Freland. My family's probably worried by now and it's still a bit of a mess."

Oliver shook his hand. "You need help with anything, you know where to call."

"Maybe. No offense but your world is…a little damn much for me."

"Any chance I can move to your spot?" Diggle had to ask to some laughs.

* * *

As soon as the blur stopped, Barry had Iris in his arms and kissing her hard with her returning it. Joe was soon hugging Wally and even Harry had to smile as he and Cisco embraced in the middle of STAR Labs.

Another red blur flashed about before another Barry came to them in a slightly different suit. "Man, this place is great! I really need to upgrade my apartment!"

Iris raised an eyebrow. "So you found another one."

"The fact you're taking this so normally really worries me," Joe had to note.

This other Flash looked at Iris as he unmasked. "Huh. You look different from my Iris. Weird."

"And you're different than our Barry," she noted. "This a friendly visit, I hope."

Her Barry smiled. "Just figuring we'd give DeVoe a little something extra to deal with."

"Before we start, you guys have a Big Boy in this universe? You wouldn't believe how I'm starving."

* * *

"You can stop smiling any time," Alex stated to Kara as they stepped into the DEO.

"Oh, no, you and Sara's ex? I am holding this over your head for a long, long time." Kara smiled as she moved to hug Winn. "Ribs, ribs!" he called out to make her let go.

"Glad you're back," J'onn stated. "We've still got some issues going around. Including a prison break with the escapees including Lillian Luthor."

"Can we deal with that tomorrow?" Kara said. "Me and Alex want to check on our mom."

J'onn smiled. "I think you two earned a personal day."

"Sir," Winn spoke up. "I was, you know, dead and all so I was wondering about a raise…"

"Don't push it, Winn."

* * *

"Good, you're back." Once again, nothing could stop the sheer unflappable nature of Alfred Pennyworth. He already had tea set up around the meeting table of Wayne Manor as the various Justice Leaguers gathered. "Mr. Allen absent?"

"He had an errand to deal with," Superman smiled.

"Well, we do have a visitor." Alfred nodded to allow a pair of men in matching green and black uniform enter the room.

"Hal," Diana said with a smile. "Good to see you. We were surprised you weren't with us in that battle."

"Turned out a good reason," Hal Jordan stated. "Seems when I 'died', the ring went and found a new bearer. Had to have a talk with the Guardians but it looks like we'll be sharing duties in this sector."

Batman frowned. "We don't have time to hold hands with a rookie."

Hal waved a hand to him. "Listen, we're getting him training but come on, this really is a learn on the job thing." They saw the handsome black man with a short haircut step forward. "Gang, meet John Stewart."

"Actually, real last name was Diggle," the man intoned. "Just felt that sounded stupid."

Superman smiled and extended a hand. "Whatever help you need, we're there for you…John."

Stewart shook it, obviously still unsure of this. Batman just gave a glare but Wonder Woman smiled, sure this was another good turn for the team ready for a new era.

* * *

Steve was never the best when it came to huge public events. It was too much a reminder of the days when he was nothing but an act for war bond rallies before he got serious in battle. He was sure that had he never been frozen, he'd have been turned into another act for post-war efforts. However, he knew this was important and thus looking as well as he could in his uniform.

He peeked around the curtain to see the huge press corps gathered in front of the large stage. They were rapt to listening as President Ellis did his speech thanking the Avengers for helping save the world and detailing how the Accords were now in suspension and a full repeal expected.

"I still can't believe Ross is going along with that," Bruce said as he adjusted his shirt carefully.

"I heard he wasn't happy," Natasha stated. "But with the public support after the battle and the realization of how important we were, he had to bow to the pressure."

Hope was fussing with Scott's own as she shook her head. "Listen, we've been pardoned, you're not a convict anymore, you can do this."

"I know, I know," he said. "I just want to be sure that it looks good for my kid watching."

Thor looked to Jane, who was now in her full uniform. "You don't have to do this."

"I want to," she responded. "Where you go, I go. Besides, someone needs to use this hammer for something other than a big paperweight."

"What about your people?" Natasha said

"Sif and Valkyrie will lead them here," Thor stated. He nodded to T'Challa. "Thank you for welcoming them until we can find a more permanent residence."

"My pleasure," T'Challa stated, his mask off as he stood in uniform. "And I am honored to join your team although you understand my royal duties take priority."

"Of course," Steve noted. He looked over to Carol, now clad in her uniform. "Welcome aboard."

"Hey, good way to get back into the flow," Captain Marvel responded.

Spider-Man was pacing back and forth, talking on a cell phone "Aunt May..yes…yes, I know but…well, the world almost ended and it just seems…No, Aunt May, I won't let it interfere with my grades…Yes, Aunt May, I'll be home before dinner tonight."

Clint shook his head. "I can't believe we're taking a kid on."

"Could be worse," Falcon pointed out. "We could have Quill and his band of weirdos. Are you sure letting them stay on Earth is a good idea?"

"They said it was just for a bit," Tony stated as he allowed his armor to flow over him. "And I've got plenty of trackers on them."

"Fine, you hear of that Drax guy smashing up robots at Disney World or Groot and Rocket going native in the Redwoods, don't cry to me."

Cap looked to Tony. "What did Strange say when you offered him a membership?"

"Before or after he stopped laughing?"

"He wouldn't laugh, it ruins his image."

"True but he did give that slow 'are you a moron' stare of his before vanishing."

Quicksilver adjusted his smooth one-piece blue suit with a white bolt across it. Wanda noted it, her own uniform now tighter in red leather. "That is new."

Pietro shrugged. "I thought it a good tribute to Barry and Wally. The least I can do for them bringing me back to life." He looked her over. "An interesting change yourself."

"I'm a grown woman, Pietro, I can change my outfit if I wish."

"Sorry but if you expect me to be any less overprotective after I've been dead…"

Clint smirked at the Vision. "Sure you want to get closer to this family?"

The synthezoid shrugged. "Every family has its issues."

Cap looked over to Tony. "Heard from Fury?"

"Nah which means he's still out there." He paused. "About Bucky…"

"Having him here would be too much. Right now, he can do more good with Coulson and his team. They can help him get his head back together and he can aid them mopping up what's left of HYDRA."

"That's not what I meant." Tony was more somber than usual as he looked to Cap. "I can't forgive him yet but…After all we've been through…I can't let us fall apart again. What happened didn't need to, not if we were united." He looked to Steve. "What I'm trying to say is…"

"Don't." Steve smiled. "I know how painful it is for you to get those words out."

"Thanks, I spent all night practicing with Pepper, couldn't really make it work."

Ellis' voice came from behind the curtain. "And so, it is time we officially recognize, as a deputized force of the United States and 126 other nations…Earth's mightiest heroes!"

"That's our cue." Taking a deep breath, Bruce transformed himself into the Hulk as the others swiftly slid on masks.

Tony nodded as he put his face mask into place. "Let's go."

Cap nodded and looked to the group prepared to march onto the stage as one united team. "Avengers… _Assemble_!"

* * *

 **And there you have it. All wrapped up and..**

 **Oh wait. It's not quite yet…**


	10. Chapter 10

**Infinity Crisis**

 **By Michael Weyer**

 **Just imagine the credits have started rolling until** ….

* * *

 **Earth-1, Freland**

The young man sighed as he exited his home with a bag in hand. "Turn to dust, come back and I still have to do chores," he muttered under his breath. It was bad enough he had just been in the hospital with that weird collapse the other day out of nowhere. Now, he had to handle garbage duty. Of course, his parents were too busy happy about being reunited to care too much and he had to admit, it was good to be back.

He was moving to the garbage can when he heard the roar of engines. He looked up to see a car racing at him from the alleyway. He didn't know if the driver was drunk or running from something and it didn't matter. What did was instinct taking over him. He leapt upward, somersaulting over the car as it smashed the garbage cans. He found himself hanging onto the wall of the apartment complex, his hands sticking to the wall with ease.

He watched the car race off before it hit him what he'd just done. He lifted one dark-skinned hand, staring at it as if he'd never seen it before, trying to understand what had happened.

"Whoa," whispered Miles Morales.

* * *

 **Earth-19999, Location Classified**

Thaddeus Ross calmly paced back and forth as he spoke. Even though he was in a suit, it carried like a uniform, especially with his attitude. "I respect the President. If not the man, then the office. I respect his word. But I love my country more. And I know he's doing the wrong thing. Oh, I get it. Hell, I was dust myself, I'm happy to the Avengers getting me back like that. But now…now they're bigger than they were before. Which means they're going to cause bigger problems. Bigger disasters. Bigger chance of lives lost."

He stopped before the figure in front of him. "We need…a deterrent. I don't want to use it but that's what a deterrent is for. Something to stop them if we need to. A team of heroes…Our kind of heroes." He leaned in. "That teams needs a leader. Someone who's proven himself able to take it to them before. Someone dedicated. Someone tough. I think…that's you. What do you say?'

Inside the plastic cell, Helmut Zemo looked up to Ross…and slowly nodded.

"Welcome to Project Thunderbolts."

* * *

 **Earth-51, Belle Reeve Prison**

The high heels clicked on the hallway floor as the woman in a professional suit marched forward. Behind her, a man was looking over a datapad in his hands. "No fingerprints. No DNA match. It's like this woman doesn't exist."

"Yet she killed three cops and an entire bar of bikers," the woman said in a hard tone. "Pretty good work for a ghost."

"It took three taser shots to bring her down." The man looked to the woman. "I'd set up a psych evalv but from what I can tell, this gal makes Quinn look normal."

"Just what I can use." The woman stopped in front of a cell, gazing at the red-haired woman inside. "Got a name?" she spoke up.

The woman looked at her as if bored while playing with the homemade shiv in her hands. "I like Sin."

"Sin…." The heavyset black woman nodded to her. "Seems fitting. My name is Amanda Waller. I'm here to talk to you about Task Force X."

* * *

 **Earth-38, National City**

The doors of the elevator dinged as Lillian Luthor carefully stepped out into the main office. She took a moment to see the woman in a professional suit facing the city, sipping at a glass of wine. "Lena," she spoke up. "No hug? No shocked look at my arrival?"

"The DEO contacted me as soon as they learned you escaped," Lena said. There was something about her tone that seemed colder than usual but Lillian brushed it aside. "There was enough chaos in the wake of the…vanishings that it was easy for you to get out."

Lillian nodded. "It was." She looked Lena over. "I am…happy to see you recovered. I was hurt when I heard you were among those gone."

"Were you now?"

"Lena, we have had our…issues but really, I didn't come here to argue old times."

"Old times." Lena let out a short laugh. "What a lovely choice of words." She turned, her eyes on Lillian and something…was wrong. There was a coldness in those eyes that hadn't been there before but also a confidence that didn't strike Lillian as the Lena she knew. "I've been thinking on those myself." She slowly circled the desk. "When I came back…it took a bit for it to come back to me. The memories, my life. I understand it's commonplace but in my case…It was different?"

"Oh? How so?" While outwardly calm, Lillian couldn't get rid of a feeling within her that something was off about her daughter.

"It made me realize my past…my true past." Lena put her glass down, her eyes glaring at Lillian. "And made me realize it was time to get back to it."

Lillian licked her lips as Lena came in. "Lena, are you feeling all right?"

"I haven't felt this good in a very, very long time. For the first time in ages…" She held up a hand and a cloud of pink fire suddenly erupted from it. "I feel like myself."

Lillian's eyes widened, her control gone in shock. "What…how are you doing that? Is that some mutation experiment?"

Lena scoffed. "Oh, of course. It has to be science for you. You had no idea, none whatsoever about the power I had. Then again, neither did I." Her face clouded. "I thought having the Luthor name would be a boon but didn't realize how far I would go into the cover…How I'd forget myself so much, actually attempt to aid others rather than myself." The glow flew about, now a dark ball of energy in her grasp. "But it's time I return to my true status."

Lillian swallowed hard as she felt a rush of fear at where this was going. "Lena…" Lillian began.

" _That is not my name_!" With that, Lena reached over and placed his fingers between Lillian's eyes. Lillian gasped as she was suddenly flooded with images…

 _There was no adoption. Lex grew up an only child. There was never another Luthor about. Lex's company was bought out by his board after his imprisonment._

Lillian shrieked as she pulled back. She stumbled against a table, staring in horror at…at…

At a woman who hadn't existed before a year ago. A woman who somehow made her believe she did, that she was a daughter. Not just her but the world itself.

"That's right," Lena said as she saw the understanding in Lillian's eyes. "It wasn't enough for me to merely flee my Earth. No, I had to be sure I was hidden away carefully. To use my magics to craft my new identity. The perfect disguise. And to be perfect, it had to work on me. To make me forget who I truly am."

Lillian swallowed deeply, her face racked in pure terror. "Who…are you?" she choked out.

"Lena" had a smile of utter wicked glee on her face. "I am Morgan Le Fay. And I'm going to get what belongs to me."

Lillian looked to her then pushed back, sprinting toward the door.

She almost made it.

* * *

 **The Phantom Zone**

 _Forms were brief in this bizarre dimension. There was a chill even though he supposedly couldn't feel it. It looked like nothing but fog about, the odd shapes but otherwise formless void. Sitting on a large boulder, Thanos brooded about the situation, trying to understand how it had come to this. He'd had victory, utter victory, his quest finally fulfilled. And somehow, it had all gone wrong. Somehow, he'd lost it all._

 _Now here he was. Stuck in a dimension without time, without form. To muse on his failure as the universe went along its merry path to utter destruction. To forever nurse his hate of the self-proclaimed "heroes" who destroyed the golden age he could have brought about. All alone._

" _You had good intentions. You should have known it would fail."_

 _Spinning, Thanos saw a pair of figures before him. Both were of large size but the mists and shadows made it hard to see them fully. "I felt the same," one said in a strong voice. "I saw my own world headed for destruction. I too did what was needed, to save what I could. I was opposed and defeated, exiled here…And my world is now nothing but dust and rocks."_

 _Thanos was silent as the man looked him over. "This place exists beyond the universes you know. It is an area where many from different realities can converge. I discovered this when I was sent here for a second time. And where I met…him."_

 _The second figure spoke up, his voice low but a power to it. "_ We shared an enemy in common. A bit different to each of us but the same name and damnable background. We realized then there was a bond we could use. To find a way to escape."

" _And how is that working out?" Thanos couldn't help but ask in a dry tone._

" _Difficult," the first man admitted. "But not impossible. Not for us…especially with you on our side."_

 _Thanos snorted. "The last person who offered me help did not have my best intentions in mind. In fact, that's a major reason I am here."_

" _We know. We can see the various realities from here but are barred from taking part in them." The first figure leaned in. "Let us be clear. I am a man used to being in command. So is my colleague. And so are you. We are leaders, not followers. We each want power in our own ways and to be utterly blunt, I don't trust either of you."_

"However _," the second figure continued. "_ On our own, none of us have the ability to escape this hell. Only by joining together do we have a chance. Afterward…we may go our own ways."

" _Or," the second man spoke up. "We can aid each other. Each of us can get our own universe. And each of us can get exactly what we truly want."_

 _Thanos mused on their words. But he knew his choice. His options were limited but with these strangers…there was a chance. He slowly rose up onto the boulder. "Well, then…since we are to be working together, might I know the names of my allies?"_

 _The tall man stepped forward, pulling off his cloak. He wore a dark uniform that looked military, a symbol on the left side of his chest. His hair was slicked back and dark and his eyes flared. "I am General Zod," he announced with obvious pride._

 _Thanos nodded then turned to the other figure. "And you…"_

 _His voice froze in his throat as the figure stepped fully into the light. He was a huge man, built like a tank in a dark blue uniform marked with a strange symbol. His skin was grey and resembled rock, his face craggy with a strangely designed helmet covering most of his scalp. His eyes glowed brightly with red fire but what struck Thanos was the sheer radiance the man set off. For the first time in his entire life, the Titan felt utter and pure fear briefly clutch at him as this…being…was nothing but sheer and undeniable evil._

 _He spoke in a voice that boomed like thunder._ _ **"Darkseid."**_

 _Thus, in the cauldron of a shared hatred, the most unholy of alliances was forged._

* * *

 **And there we go.**

 **Thanks to everyone who reviewed and favorited this. Again, special thanks to Marcus S. Lazarus for a TV Tropes page on this too. It was fun as hell and glad you all enjoyed it.**

 **As for a sequel? Well, one never knows but I'll admit some ideas abounding so we'll see how it works. Thanks, hope you enjoyed.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Infinity War Commentary**

No, not a new chapter. Rather, I wanted to fill in some blanks for folks so consider this something of a "director's commentary" on how it all worked out.

 **Chapter 1:**

It hit me almost as soon as I saw _Infinity War_. It just made sense and seemed a bit ahead of the curve as saw a few authors doing fics like it just after I posted the first chapter. I should say off the bat that Marcus S. Lazarus was a key help in helping me go through with it as he liked the concept and managed to find the time to get it going.

Originally, I had Barry among those "dusted" to remove him and his speed from the equation. But I realized hard to do a big Arrowverse event without the Flash and managed to fix it later. At the time, I didn't think of Black Lightning being involved so might have done something of his reactions too but still think I got the feeling of it all. Also, Nyssa was going to be dusted but the idea of her working with Alex and Constantine and Sara freaking about it was too good to pass up.

The Phantom Stranger was an option Marcus suggested fit best as always liked him and he fits into the Arrowverse world of magic well.

The idea of the Avengers already knowing Coulson alive has shown up in a few fics, hard to believe he's kept it secret after the fall of SHIELD and just never mentioned. And just love Sif so having her and Valkyrie pairing up made sense.

 **Chapter 2:**

Let's face it, in a head-to-head fight, the Arrowverse crew could beat the Avengers, not just in numbers but power. Thus, having the Flashes show off their speed was a good way to sell them as allies with their strength.

The idea of a "lowered Speed Force" was inspired by how JLA/Avengers has them saying Flash is slower in the MU without it but didn't want him totally powerless. Also, wanted to address the time travel issue right off with Barry and the Legends noting how it's not an easy go-go answer.

Having Mephisto as Thanos "ally" is a callback to the original _Infinity Gauntlet_ storyline as he's not happy about the billions of souls stolen from him so playing a long game setting Thanos' fall up.

 **Chapter 3** :

Some complained a bit much on "sharing origins" but wanted to see the obvious similarities abounding with Tony and Ray, Caitlin and Bruce and the various others.

The Lucifer bit was a throw-out line to me as loved the show and angered at how (at the time of writing) it had been axed (so very happy it's been revived by Netflix).

Again, Lightning a late addition but I think it works as it wouldn't have known about contacting Oliver and Barry in the first place so needed a "ride" from the Stranger to get to them. And having him be from Earth-1 just made sense from a writing perspective to make it easier.

I thought it good of Alex, Nyssa and Natasha understanding each other more from fighting than talking. And the Mick/Rocket bit was just too perfect.

 **Chapter 4:**

I got heat about the line of Shuri creating her own armor at 5 in her room as I thought a funny bit with her genius from an ultra-advanced society. But I do now realize it was too much and so did a fast rewrite of her admitting later she was just trolling Tony which is perfectly in character for her.

My original idea was Constantine, a master con man, to realize "the Ancient One" was actually Mordo in disguise. The idea was him thinking a lessened population would help him out in his quest to "control" magic (Constantine: "Land of the blind, one-eyed man is king, eh?") However, decided that was a bit much in the villain area so kept it simple but had to add Loki as just so damn fun to write.

Having Caitlin get her powers back via a Frost Giant just seemed a smart addition. Let's face it, the Skull wouldn't be humbled by his prison at all but still lust for power and welcome an alliance with Thanos for it.

Obviously, stuff with Ant-Man and Wasp is up in the air with their movie so if I made mistakes with it that you read after the film comes out, that's why.

Adding Malekith was a late notion as thought he was a good candidate given we never actually see him die, just swallowed up. And having Hela (one of the best villains in the MCU) manage to survive was logical given she's more an avatar of a primal force than just a mere goddess. Each doing this purely for revenge made sense.

 **Chapter 5:**

Obviously, some of my info about Captain Marvel in the MCU might end up being wrong but it happens. After all, Marcus S. Lazarus did a whole story involving the Avengers and the Time Stone before it turned out it was Doctor Strange's amulet so forgive any mistakes the movie contradicts.

The bit of the Skull and the HYDRA council is inspired by a great 1990s storyline from _Nick_ _Fury, Agent of SHIELD_ where it's a resurrected Baron Strucker (founder of HYDRA in the comic) who's doing it. Yet made sense as the Skull would despise seeing his army "turn corporate." Adding Sin was a late choice but I think it works out in a "legacy" way.

The Loki "ghost" talking was a late addition but I enjoyed it with his banter with the others. Naming Thanos' running group the Masters of Evil was the only logical choice.

Hoped to get more character interaction but pushed more to get it posted yet think I got how some connections were made like Kara and Carol and loved the Mick/Rocket stuff.

 **Chapter 6:**

I had planned for the bit of the Flashes grabbing the Gauntlet but decided to throw in a wrinkle of them sent into the Speed Force. Quicksilver resurrected was a late thought, at first dismissed but then thought it might actually be a fun thing to pull off as the Speed Force is shown as an "afterlife" for speedsters with the potential to return.

One idea was Ultron being resurrected by Thanos' scientists for his drones attacking. But then realized he'd be more into wiping out Earth rather than working with Skull and others. Thus, the Chautari would make a more logical choice.

The Defenders were going to be all wiped out but as I wrote this, having Jessica be a survivor was fun and her just at a bar a call-back to a line I had earlier. The banter between her and Mick was never planned, just one of those things that happened but think it worked out well.

Having the Justice League enter was an early idea that just grew more and more. It was going to be just the Trinity but Marcus suggested Cyborg with his boom tube tech getting them there and that was a good addition with the Mother Box and the Gauntlet natural to link up.

I admit, it's a purely cinematic moment in my head, complete with the themes for Superman's arrival and the idea of Diana, Sif, Valkyrie, Nyssa and Okoye together as her theme music pounds away drove me writing it.

An early idea was Kara somehow rendered powerless and then getting the hammer to use. However, felt that might take away from her a bit, that she needed the crutch of powers to survive. Thus, keeping to the comics with Jane wielding the hammer as a Lady Thor was the next logical step and loved capturing that on paper.

 **Chapter 7:**

Another late addition from Marcus as he suggested a good idea to show how the Justice League found out about where to go and how. Adding a big battle with the Injustice Gang was fun and thought Fate made sense for their source of info.

I keep thinking the Arrowverse failed not going full on redemption for Black Siren but bouncing between good and bad. Thus, the idea that seeing the sister she lost on her world in danger finally gets Laurel to face up to her harsh past and pain and choose the right side at last.

The Skull/Lightning bit was inspired by a classic moment of Geoff Johns' 2003 _Avengers_ run with the Black Panther in the role there. But having a Nazi get his ass kicked by a rough black street hero was just perfect in so many ways and Skull impaled on a flagpole another image too good to pass on.

Again, Daredevil was to be among the dusted but threw him in late and liked how it worked as well as Kara holding up the hammer. Getting Bruce to have a "pep talk" to the Hulk seemed a good solution, another bit where I'm just guessing how the movies will play out.

 **Chapter 8:**

How to restore everyone was always a tricky question. I went through various twists and turns, figuring things out and realized it required some good old "comic book science" mixed with magic. I hope it works out and obviously not how the movies will go but figure between a Mother Box and shrinking, this turned into a good solution.

I'd had an idea for a bit how to bring back Gamora but Marcus helped me streamline it so thought that worked out. Adding the JL Flash and Aquaman also was a good addition.

Man, the battle was just so much damn fun to write. It just all clicked like Ollie and Clint firing arrows with Atom and Ant-Man to grow; the Flashes bonding; the various reunions; Jessica's reaction to Groot; just how it all flowed, I did have ideas of how it would be a long massive camera take flying around the battle with twists to each heroic segment and such. I know, harder to capture that on the page but hope it worked.

One thing I did drop was Batman bringing Green Lantern's ring to find a new host (maybe Coulson) but another idea that just seemed too wild to pull off.

Come on, you can't do a major thing like this and not find a way to work in a Stan Lee "cameo."

Having Thanos tossed into the Phantom Zone struck me as the best solution in multiple ways. And liked how it brings up a key difference between the heroic groups ("we're not about vengeance. We're about justice.")

While Mephisto was always in place, having Loki be alive was a late idea as hit me just one of his usual tricks and he'd want a "fresh start" of sorts.

 **Chapter 9:**

A lot of this was late character building stuff but again, thanks to Marcus Lazarus for helping inspire idea of the Mother Box getting the Vision back together.

Yeah, the Alex/Nyssa hook-up was in the cards from the start as the idea of Sara's exes doing this was just funny to me and loved doing the reactions to them. Plus, the banter of Kara/Clark and Superman and Cap worked out too.

Did have an idea of Ross showing up with soldiers to try and arrest the anti-Accords bunch with everyone else naturally against him. Tony would get on the horn to the President who'd fire Ross on the spot. However, Ross may be short-tempered but not that much of an idiot so had something better in mind.

Black Siren joining the Legends was a logical move to get her back on track. I know Diggle and Felicity get a lot of flack over their actions but I figured coming back from death would give them much needed perspective and changing themselves for Ollie. The idea of John Stewart as a new GL was also in my head and having him be the Earth-51 Diggle touches on rumors about the character years back. And another idea from Marcus on how Barry would get the JL Flash to aid against DeVoe.

Thought having the Avengers together was good, going for more "classic comics" for Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch's new looks. Wanted to touch on Bucky and Tony's issues and Bucky joining Coulson is a logical move. Plus, just had to have the "Assemble" line in there.

 **Chapter 10:**

Ah, the stingers. Having Miles Morales as one of the super-powered kids in Black Lightning's world was the logical step as he fits in much better there as an Arrowverse Spider-Man.

Ross getting the Thunderbolts together was a logical move as the MCU (and especially him) would want to have someone against the Avengers as a government-controlled hero team and Zemo as the leader was the only choice. Seguing from that to Waller recruiting Sin into the Suicide Squad just flowed perfectly.

Obviously, Lena being Morgan Le Fay is inspired by Katie McGrath's role on _Merlin_. But I was also going with the Marvel Comics version and her pulling a _Doctor Who_ style hide-out just flowed into my head to come together nicely.

To clarify the ending, this is not the Zod from _Man of Steel_. The idea is the Phantom Zone extends to other realities so this is the Zod of Earth-38. As _Supergirl_ fans remember, Superman was exposed to silver kryptonite and hallucinated seeing Kara as Zod to attack her so that's the version here. I figure this is the Darkseid of another reality and having Thanos with a character who inspired him just makes sense.

So there you are, thanks for all the great reviews and thought you'd like more insight. As for a follow-up, I'll admit ideas a plenty so we'll see how it turns out.


End file.
